SC seeks Centre's reply on plea for opening places of worship

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking to open all religious places of worship across country which have been closed due to COVID-19 pandemic.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued the notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs on the plea of Ahmedabad-based 'Gitarth Ganga Trust’ seeking opening of the places of worship in the country.

"We are issuing notice just to explore possibility,” said the bench, which also comprised Jusrices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, in the proceedings held through video conferencing.

The trust, a Religious Research Institute, filed the plea through lawyer Surjendu Sankar Das.

The plea said it has been filed with the "solemn and pious objective to protect the fundamental rights enshrined and guaranteed under the Articles 14, 19(1)(a) and (b), 25, 26 and 21, in particular, of the residents of India pertaining to opening of the places of worship/religious places throughout India which have been prohibited/restricted at present by many of the states”.