SC to hear pleas on Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act; Justice Khanwilkar to retire

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday several important matters, including a batch of pleas challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

Second senior-most judge Justice A M Khanwilkar is set to demit office on Friday after a tenure of over six years in the top court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana is scheduled to hear a plea of expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam against the decisions of the party faction led by E K Palaniswami.

Besides, a bench headed by Justice U U Lalit is slated to hear a plea filed by an additional district judge posted in Bihar who has approached the apex court challenging his suspension by the Patna High Court and initiation of disciplinary proceedings.

In his plea, Shashi Kant Rai, an additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) in Bihar’s Araria, has claimed that he was suspended for concluding the trial in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act case, involving the rape of a six-year-old girl, in a single day.

A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud is scheduled to hear six pleas challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

Several other pleas, including the one filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, challenging the validity of certain provisions of the 1991 Act is already pending in the apex court.

The top court had earlier sought the Centre’s response on Upadhyay’s plea challenging the validity of certain provisions of the 1991 law, which prohibit the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947.