About the Act

• The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 says that no person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination into one of a different denomination or section.
• It contains a declaration that a place of worship shall continue to be as it was on August 15, 1947.
• Significantly, it prohibits any legal proceedings from being instituted regarding the character of a place of worship, and declares that all suits and appeals pending before any court or authority on the cut-off date regarding the conversion of the character of a place of worship shall abate.
• In other words, all pending cases will come to an end, and no further proceedings can be filed. However, any suit or proceedings relating to any conversion of status that happened after the cut-off date can continue.

Exceptions

• The 1991 Act will not apply in some cases. It will not apply to ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains that are covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. 
• It will also not apply to any suit that has been finally settled or disposed of, any dispute that has been settled by the parties before the 1991 Act came into force, or to the conversion of any place that took place by acquiescence.
• The Act specifically exempted from its purview the place of worship commonly referred to as Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. It was done to allow the pending litigation to continue as well as to preserve the scope for a negotiated settlement.
  • The dispute ended after the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the land on which the Masjid stood should be handed over to the Hindu community for the construction of a Ram temple.
• Anyone contravening the prohibition on converting the status of a place of worship is liable to be imprisoned for up to three years, and a fine. Those abetting or participating in a criminal conspiracy to commit this offence will also get the same punishment.

Why in News?

• A three-judge Supreme Court bench is set to take up petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act, 1991.

Reference:

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/places-of-worship-act-supreme-court-issues-notice-to-centre-8140515/