A three-judge Supreme Court bench would on October 11 take up petitions that have challenged the constitutionality of a law that presents a hurdle to an Ayodhya-style removal of mosques from premises shared with temples in Varanasi and Mathura.

Saying this on Friday, Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit, sitting on a bench with Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha, indicated that the petitions — moved by pro-Hindutva litigants — could later be referred to a constitution bench.

The Places of Worship Act, 1991, says the character of a place of public worship shall be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947, except for the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid, which was already under litigation at Independence.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta sought two weeks’ time for filing the Centre’s response.

Quashing of the 1991 law would strengthen demands by Sangh parivar leaders to relocate the Gyanvapi Masjid, which shares premises with the Kashi Vishwanath temple, and the Idgah adjacent to the Krishna temple in Mathura.

The bench on Friday allowed nearly a dozen intervention pleas moved by opponents of the 1991 law as well as its supporters, such as the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.

Marital rape

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on September 16 the pleas arising out of Delhi High Court’s split verdict on the issue of criminalisation of marital rape.

PTI