Delhi Race Course Masjid gets four-week respite from demolition
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The mosque located inside the Race Course Club, where an eviction drive is under way because of its proximity to the Prime Minister’s residence on security grounds, will be safe from demolition for four weeks after the Land and Development Office (L&DO) assured the Delhi High Court that it would take no coercive action against the mosque.
The assurance came on Thursday as the court considered a petition seeking protection for the Waqf-notified mosque, which is also classified as a Grade-II heritage structure, amid the Centre’s ongoing reclamation of land in the surrounding area.
Justice Anish Dayal recorded the Centre’s undertaking that the L&DO would decide on a representation submitted by the Delhi Waqf Board within four weeks, and would refrain from taking coercive action against the mosque until then. The court also directed the Centre to submit a status report, accompanied by photographs, before the next hearing on December 16.
The mosque stands within the 53-acre Race Course Club complex, near 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, the Prime Minister’s residence. The wider area, which includes the Delhi Race Club and Jaipur Polo Ground, is being repossessed by the L&DO under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, while nearly 700 families living in nearby slum settlements have already been evicted and their dwellings demolished.
However, the court declined to order the restoration of access to the mosque, as the Centre maintained that demolition work was continuing at the site and that allowing worshippers to enter would endanger their safety. Government standing counsel Ashish Dixit said access to a neighbouring temple had also been restricted for the same reason.
Advocate M Sufian Siddiqui, appearing for worshipper Syed Ahmed Saud, disputed the claim that demolition work was still under way, but Justice Dayal declined to intervene, observing that the authorities could not be compelled to permit prayers when the site was considered unsafe.
The dispute also concerns two separate representations submitted to the L&DO. The Waqf Board’s letter of October 19 sought the restoration of electricity and water connections, disconnected on October 7, while Saud’s representation of October 22 sought unrestricted access and protection against demolition, sealing, dispossession and other coercive measures.
The Centre told the court that it would consider only the Waqf Board’s representation, arguing that entertaining individual worshippers’ claims could open a “Pandora’s box” of similar demands.