Case for secularism

AT stake is India's secular character and vision as a special Bench of the Supreme Court begins hearing from December 12 a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The legislation preserves the identity of religious sites as they stood on August 15, 1947. It also bars suits that seek to alter the status. The hearing comes amid intense judicial activity, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, in response to multiple civil suits questioning the origins of mosques and dargahs. The petitions in the apex court claim that several mosques have been built on the ruins of temples demolished by invaders. The law, the contention is, denies Hindus and members of other communities the right to reclaim their places of worship. Muslim organisations argue that the law safeguards the basic structure of the Constitution.

The affirmation of the 1991 Act in the Ayodhya judgment provides hope that attempts to tinker with the principles of secularism and fraternity — that define the very idea of India — are defeated. A five-judge Supreme Court Bench has held that the Places of Worship Act is designed to protect the secular features of the polity. Historical wrongs, it noted, cannot be remedied by people taking the law in their own hands and Parliament has mandated that history and its wrongs shall not be used as instruments to oppress the present and future.

The outcome of the case could well determine the trajectory of communal relations in the country. For a former apex court judge, RF Nariman, the solution to address the disputes over religious sites, which he said were emerging like hydra heads, is strict implementation of the 1991 Act. The present and future cannot be held hostage to the past.