The Muslim parties meanwhile filed an application under Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC challenging the maintainability of the suit on ground that the Places of Worship Act of 1991, which was introduced at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, seeks to protect the status of all religious structures as it stood on August 15, 1947.
Section 4 of the Act states that the religious character of a place of worship existing on August 15, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day. It bars courts from entertaining cases regarding such places of worship. The provision further states that such cases already pending in courts would stand abated.
However, the trial court agreed with the main argument advanced by the plaintiffs that they had not sought conversion of the place of worship from a mosque to temple.
The appellants were represented by Senior Advocate Syed Ahmed Faizan and Advocate Zaheer Asghar.
The respondents were represented by Advocates Prabhash Pandey, Arya Suman Pandey, Saurabh Tiwari ,Vishnu Shankar Jain and Vineet Sankalp.
Source: Barandbench
