On 12 December, the Supreme Court stepped in to water down the communal fires across the country by ordering that no further suits can be registered against places of worship till further orders from the court.
"As the matter is sub-judice before this court, we deem it appropriate to direct that while suits may be filed, no suits would be registered and proceedings undertaken till further orders of this court. We also direct that in the pending suits, the courts would not pass any effective interim orders or final orders, including orders of survey till the next date of hearing."
A special bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar, and Justice KV Viswanathan was hearing a batch of petitions questioning the constitutional validity of the 1991 Act, which prohibits the conversion of the religious character of places of worship from their status as of 15 August 1947.
Although it is an interim order, it is significant in nature. By ‘staying everything’, the court has done what could have been before when the Gyanvapi matter was being heard by DY Chandrachud, the former chief justice.