Pardon me, judges open Pandora's box

There was widespread acceptance of the intent, purpose, spirit and scope of the Act.

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In my view, the Act achieved its purpose because there was peace and tranquility on issues concerning places of worship for nearly 30 years. By and large, the people accepted that a temple shall remain a temple, a mosque shall remain a mosque, a church shall remain a church, a gurdwara shall remain a gurdwara, a synagogue shall remain a synagogue, and every other place of worship shall retain the same character it had possessed on August 15, 1947.

Benign neglect Unfortunately, there is precious little information on the working of the Act. Queries to PRISM (a Parliamentary research facility) revealed that the government of the day gave bland answers on three occasions about the arrests and prosecutions under the Act. The best that can be said of the working of the Act is that successive governments have shown benign neglect of the Act.