The Supreme Court today stayed the Allahabad High Court's verdict on the Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute. Various groups have challenged the High Court's order. The High Court had accepted that the site was the birthplace of Lord Ram. The three-judge Lucknow bench had ruled in a majority judgment 2:1 that the disputed land be divided with one-third for the Sunni Waqf Board, one-third for the Nirmohi Akhara and one-third to the party for 'Ram Lalla'.

TOI reports that while directing that there shall be no religious activity on the 67 acre land, acquired by the central government adjacent to the disputed structure, the apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R.M. Lodha said the status quo shall be maintained with regard to the rest of the land. The apex court also questionsed as to "How could the high court engineer something like partitioning of disputed land on its own."

ET reports, assailing the judgment of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, the apex court bench said that by directing the partition of the disputed site, the High Court has given an entirely new dimension to the case. "It is a rare judgement whose operation has to be stayed," the Court said. "It was a strange and surprising order that was not prayed for by any of the parties and cannot be allowed to remain," it said.

The Supreme Court further said that the partition of disputed land has "opened a litany of litigation".

The Court ordered that the prayers at Ram Lala's make-shift temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya would continue as usual. "We are not disturbing anything which was going on", said the apex court bench.

This was the first hearing in the apex court after the Allahabad High Court had delivered its verdict in the title suit in September last year.