Places of Worship Act: Supreme Court Says New Cases Can Be Filed, But Courts Should Not Entertain Them

Places of Worship Act: On December 12, 2024, during a hearing on the Places of Worship Act, the Supreme Court stated that although new cases could be filed, the lower courts should not go ahead with them. The Chief Justice, Sanjiv Khanna, directed the central government to respond to the pending petitions within four weeks and asked all the parties concerned to file their replies accordingly.

Key Highlights

The Supreme Court declined to respond to survey orders passed by lower courts regarding religious sites while some lawyers raised objections to the same.
The court inquired about the number of cases pending concerning sites such as Mathura and Gyanvapi, with reports stating that there were 18 pending cases involving 10 religious places.
Justice KV Viswanathan noted that civil courts cannot proceed where a related matter is before the Supreme Court.

Centralized Response Portal

Khanna suggested the creation of a portal or system to make all the responses available. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta suggested using a link on Google Drive, which would be transparent and make it easy to access documents.