While former Union minister Swamy wanted the apex court to “read down” certain provisions to enable Hindus to stake claim over the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi and Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura, Upadhyay claimed the entire statute was unconstitutional and no question of reading down arises.The doctrine of reading down a law is generally used to save a statute from being struck down on account of its unconstitutionality.On the other hand, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had cited the five-judge Constitution bench judgement in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title case, noting the reference to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, to argue that the law cannot be set aside now.The top court had on March 12, 2022, sought the Centre’s response to the plea filed by Upadhyay challenging the validity of certain provisions of the law.The petition alleged that the 1991 law creates an “arbitrary and irrational retrospective cut-off date” of August 15, 1947, for maintaining the character of the places of worship or pilgrimage against encroachment done by “fundamentalist-barbaric invaders and law-breakers”.The 1991 law prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.The law had made only one exception — on the dispute pertaining to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid in Ayodhya.
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