What the Act Freezes

The Act was passed in September 1991, in a period of intense public conflict over the site at Ayodhya, and its purpose is stated in its own preamble: to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the fifteenth day of August 1947.

Three sections do the work. Section 3 forbids the conversion of a place of worship of any religious denomination, or of any section of one, into a place of worship of a different denomination or section. Section 4(1) declares that the religious character of a place of worship as it existed on 15 August 1947 shall continue to be the same. Section 4(2) abates every suit, appeal or other proceeding pending before any court on that date concerning the conversion of the religious character of a place of worship, and bars any fresh proceeding.

The exceptions are set out in section 4(3) and section 5. Ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites covered by the monuments legislation are outside the Act. So are disputes already settled, and conversions that took place by agreement or by decree before the commencement. And section 5 states that the Act does not apply to the place of worship commonly known as the Ram Janma Bhumi Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, or to any suit or proceeding relating to it.