The Supreme Court will hear a batch of writ petitions challenging the constitutionality validity of the Places of Worship Act (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 on December 12 at 3.30 PM. 

The challenge will be heard by a special bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justices Sanjay Kumar, and K.V. Viswanathan. The petitioners argue that the law is arbitrary and unreasonable and infringes the fundamental right to practice religion, leading to the violation of the fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 25 of the Indian Constitution.

The lead petition (Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India) was filed in 2020, and the Court issued notice to the Union Government in March 2021.

Later, a few other similar petitions(Vishwa Bhadra Pujari Purohit Mahasangh v. UOI and Dr. Subhramanian Swamy And Ors v. UOI ) were also filed challenging the statute, which seeks to preserve the status quo with respect to religious structures as they stood on August 15, 1947, and prohibits legal proceedings seeking their conversion.