The demolition of Jahangirpuri has been halted by the Supreme Court, and work will resume in 90 minutes.

On Wednesday, the north corporation’s bulldozers descended on the C-Block of Jahangirpuri in north-west Delhi, where communal rioting erupted during a Hanuman Jayanti procession last Saturday. In response to Delhi BJP head Adesh Gupta’s letter on Tuesday, the civic body rushed in nine demolition equipment early Tuesday morning and began cleaning a roadway under the watchful eye of over 1,500 police officers and paramilitary forces.

Around 10.15 a.m., the first bulldozer arrived. The JCBs remained unstoppable for the next two hours, despite the fact that a Chief Justice-led Supreme Court bench had ordered status quo at the site around 10.50 a.m., in response to an urgent plea by senior advocate Dushyant Dave on behalf of the aggrieved Muslim community. However, citing the lack of a written order, the corporation officials continued the drive until around 12.20 p.m., tearing down one structure after another, until CPM’s Brinda Karat arrived around the time the SC was reiterating its order after being told that the drive had not ceased.