{"id":258618,"date":"2023-09-04T20:51:36","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=258618"},"modified":"2023-09-04T20:51:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:21:36","slug":"courts-order-and-the-asi-survey-are-flawed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/courts-order-and-the-asi-survey-are-flawed\/","title":{"rendered":"Court\u2019s order and the ASI survey are flawed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cCourt\u2019s order and the ASI survey are flawed\u201d<\/strong> published in <strong>The Hindu<\/strong> on <strong>4th September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus:<\/strong> GS 2 &#8211; Society- diversity of India &amp; GS2 \u2013 Polity &#8211; judiciary<\/p>\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong> The author discusses the Supreme Court of India&#8217;s interpretation of the &#8220;Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991&#8221; in the Ram Janmabhoomi temple case and expresses concern about the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the Archaeological Survey of India to investigate the Gyanvapi mosque&#8217;s origins. The author fears this could set a precedent for questioning the historical origins of many religious sites in India, potentially causing religious tensions and disputes.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the constitutional basis for the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Constitutional Basis for the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preamble&#8217;s Objective:<\/strong> The act aims to prevent the conversion of any place of worship and maintain its religious character as of August 15, 1947.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defined by Supreme Court:<\/strong> The law addresses two primary concerns:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>a) It bars the conversion of any place of worship, thereby addressing the future.<\/li>\n<li>b) It mandates the upkeep of the religious nature of places as they were on India&#8217;s Independence Day.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Specific Exceptions:<\/strong> Only the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid is exempted from this mandate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Upholding Constitutional Values<\/strong>: The act was described by the Supreme Court as protecting and upholding the core values of the Indian Constitution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Healing Past Injustices:<\/strong> The act sees independence from colonial rule as a foundation to rectify past injustices, assuring every religious community of the protection of their places of worship.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What was the recent controversy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In August 2023, the Supreme Court did not stop a decision allowing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to study the Gyanvapi mosque.<\/p>\n<p>The author questions the purpose of this study since the mosque&#8217;s religious nature has been established for centuries.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the implications of the recent Supreme Court decision on the Gyanvapi mosque?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Overlooked Precedent:<\/strong> The Supreme Court&#8217;s decision seemed to overlook the binding precedent set in the Ram Janmabhoomi temple case, especially one Justice Chandrachud was part of.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Potential Character Change<\/strong>: There&#8217;s an absolute bar against changing the mosque&#8217;s character. Any Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) inquiry into its nature challenges this principle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Futility of the Inquiry:<\/strong> The mosque has been a worship place for Muslims for centuries. The purpose and potential outcome of the ASI survey are questioned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>State Obligations:<\/strong> The decision disregards obligations the act placed on the state and every citizen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cultural Harmony at Risk:<\/strong> With elections approaching, this decision can cause misgivings in minority communities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Setting a Precedent:<\/strong> This might open a Pandora&#8217;s box where multiple sites could be questioned, further stirring religious tensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The post is based on the article \u201cCourt\u2019s order and the ASI survey are flawed\u201d published in The Hindu on 4th September 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 &#8211; Society- diversity of India &amp; GS2 \u2013 Polity &#8211; judiciary News: The author discusses the Supreme Court of India&#8217;s interpretation of the &#8220;Places of Worship (Special Provisions)&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/courts-order-and-the-asi-survey-are-flawed\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Court\u2019s order and the ASI survey are flawed<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,225,10498],"class_list":["post-258618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":8,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1697827685},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}