In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has issued an interim order preventing trial courts across the nation from initiating surveys or passing judgments on existing religious structures under dispute. The directive, delivered by a bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, alongside Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan, emphasizes the current judicial consideration of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which safeguards the religious character of such sites.
The Act, pivotal in maintaining communal harmony, was spotlighted in the 2019 Ayodhya verdict by a Constitution Bench, which upheld its significance. The bench reiterated, “As the matter of the Act’s validity remains sub-judice, no fresh suits or proceedings shall be initiated, and no conclusive orders shall be passed in the existing ones.”
The ongoing scrutiny of the Act began with a petition by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who argued that it unjustly perpetuates the legacies of historical invaders by denying legal recourse to the indigenous religious communities of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs. His plea, which led the Supreme Court to issue a notice in 2021, has sparked significant legal and public discourse.
Further complexities were added when the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind petitioned for involvement, indicating the case’s potential repercussions on places of worship currently under Islamic aegis. The Places of Worship Act, designed to freeze the religious status of places as they were on the eve of India’s independence in 1947, explicitly excludes the Ram Janmabhoomi site, for which the Supreme Court rendered a decisive verdict in 2019.
This ongoing legal battle also encompasses high-profile cases related to the Shahi Jama Masjid, the Gyanvapi Mosque, the Shahi Eidgah Masjid, and the Ajmer Dargah, with claims that these Islamic sites were established over former temples.
