SC to hear pleas on Places of Worship Act tomorrow

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear a batch of pleas relating to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, on Monday.

As per the cause list for February 17 uploaded on the apex court's website, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan is slated to hear the matter. The Act 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. However, the dispute relating to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue in Ayodhya was kept out of its purview. Some of the pleas filed in the apex court have challenged the validity of certain provisions of the 1991 law. On January 2, the top court agreed to examine a plea filed by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi seeking effective implementation of the places of worship law.