The disenchantment with the secular ideal
Hindustan TimesOn December 12, through an interim order, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by the current Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, delivered a brief respite against the rising tide of communalism. The bench has temporarily barred trial courts from admitting petitions and passing “effective orders” allowing surveys in cases related to the Places of Worship Act, 1991 until the validity of the 1991 law is determined. In so doing, the Supreme Court has put a temporary lid on the Pandora’s box opened by former Chief Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud’s observations in the Gyanvapi mosque case that merely allowing a “survey” did not violate the Places of Worship Act. “Nation’s Shame” is how India Today described the act of demolition, capturing the fact that even as the moment was being celebrated in some quarters, there remained active political contestation. This was acknowledged in the Ayodhya judgment that observed that the Act was “intrinsically related to the obligations of a secular State…to preserve and protect the equality of all faiths as an essential constitutional value”.
History of this topic
Insidious campaign seeking abrogation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991
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