SC's Ayodhya judgment should be read in every District Court, High Court to prevent suits against mosques: Justice Rohinton Nariman

The Ayodhya judgment of Supreme Court was a travesty of justice to secularism but five pages of the judgment affirming the Places of Worship Act of 1991 were a silver lining, former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Nariman said on Thursday..Those five pages of the Constitution Bench judgment on the Ayodhya dispute are an answer to the ongoing litigation across the country that seek surveys of mosques alleged to have been built over temples in the past, Justice Nariman further said."And this very Constitution Bench spends five pages on it and says that it is sound in secularism which is part of the basic structure that you cannot look backwards, you have to look forwards," he stated.He further said that those five pages have to be read out in every District Court and High Court in the country to prevent further such claims being made against various religious structures..Since 2019, a number of cases have been filed before civil courts, particularly in north India, to seek "restoration" of the temples allegedly destroyed in the past to build mosques.The latest among them is the Sambhal Jamia Masjid case in which in a civil court recently ordered a survey following a claim that it was built over a temple. Pertinently, The Places of Worship Act - the law that prohibits conversion of any place of worship from their position as on August 15 1947, - is currently under challenge before the top court..In 2019, the Supreme Court in its seminal verdict on the Ayodhya dispute had hailed the 1991 law."In providing a guarantee for the preservation of the religious character of places of public worship as they existed on 15 August 1947 and against the conversion of places of public worship, Parliament determined that independence from colonial rule furnishes a constitutional basis for healing the injustices of the past by providing the confidence to every religious community that their places of worship will be preserved and that their character will not be altered," the Constitution Bench had said.The State by enacting the law enforced a constitutional commitment and operationalized its obligation to uphold the equality of all religions and secularism which is a part of the basic features of the Constitution, it added."The Places of Worship Act imposes a non-derogable obligation towards enforcing our commitment to secularism under the Indian Constitution. The law is hence a legislative instrument designed to protect the secular features of the Indian polity, which is one of the basic features of the 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 top court had said in the Ayodhya verdict..Justice Nariman hailed this aspect of the verdict.Explaining that the 1991 law freezes the places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, Justice Nariman in his address said,"We find today, like hydra heads popping up all over the country, there is suit after suit filed all over the place, now, not only concerning mosques, but also dargas (shrines)..The only way to scotch all this and to cauterize all these hydra heads is by applying these five pages in this very judgment and having it read out before each district court and high court, because these five pages is a declaration of law by the Supreme Court which binds each of them.".Once it is done, it is clear that the Places of Worship Act will take its due course, he added."So if this Act were to be applied, as stated in this judgment itself, it will easily cauterize all these hydra heads which are now popping up one after the other every day today," Justice Nariman further said..Justice Nariman was delivering the inaugural lecture of the Ahmadi Foundation, which has been established in the memory of Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi, the 26th Chief Justice of India (CJI).A biography - 'The Fearless Judge' - of Justice Ahmadi was also released at the event. .[Watch Justice Nariman's Speech below]