Indian law protecting places of worship faces judicial review amid growing clamour over mosques

A slew of petitions have been filed against the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, by various Hindu groups to ‘correct a historical wrong’, reports Sravasti Dasgupta

An aerial view shows Gyanvapi mosque, left, and Kashiviswanath temple on the banks of the river Ganges in Varanasi (AP)

India’s Supreme Court is set to examine the constitutional validity of a law that protects places of worship at a time when a worrying number of hardline Hindu voices claim some mosques were built over demolished Hindu temples.

A slew of petitions have been filed against the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, by various Hindu groups and temple committees as well as a parliamentarian from prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A three-judge bench of the apex court will now decide the fate of the law on 14 November, after it receives a reply from the federal government by the end of October.