Places of Worship Act imposes non-derogable obligation towards commitment to secularism: Owaisi

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said the Places of Worship Act, 1991, imposes a non-derogable obligation towards enforcing commitment to secularism under the Indian Constitution.

Tagging a media report on the Supreme Court refusing to stay Hindu prayers in southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque, the Hyderabad MP in a post on 'X' said: ''The Places of Worship Act imposes a non-derogable obligation towards enforcing our commitment to secularism under the Indian Constitution...Non-retrogression is a foundational feature of the fundamental constitutional principles of which secularism is a core component. The Places of Worship Act is thus a legislative intervention which preserves non-retrogression as an essential feature of our secular values.'' The AIMIM chief further said ''Constrained to remind the Court of its own precedent''.

The Legislation (Places of Worship Act, 1991) prohibits conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Hindu prayers in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi even as it ordered a ''status quo'' on the religious observances by both the Hindu and Muslim sides inside the mosque premises.

The court was hearing a fresh plea of the Gyanvapi mosque management committee against an Allahabad High Court decision upholding a lower court's order allowing Hindu prayers in the southern cellar of the mosque.

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