The Delhi High Court has refused to direct the restoration of electricity and water supply to Race Course Masjid, located inside the Race Course Club complex near the Prime Minister’s residence, after the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) disconnected the utilities on October 7. Dismissing a petition filed by the mosque’s imam, Mohd Haroon, on October 15, Justice Saurabh Banerjee held that the matter involved disputed questions of fact, including the petitioner’s legal rights over the premises and whether the mosque was covered by an earlier court order permitting evictions in the area.
The mosque is a Waqf-notified property and a Grade II heritage structure notified in 2009. Haroon, who lives in the premises, approached the court on October 12, seeking the restoration of the disconnected services.
The dispute comes amid an ongoing eviction and demolition exercise involving the Race Course Club, spread across approximately 53 acres, and neighbouring slum settlements. The Centre has cited national security concerns to justify taking possession of the land. However, government sources said on Thursday that no eviction notice had been issued to the mosque.
In a letter dated October 8, the Delhi Waqf Board had asked the NDMC’s executive engineer to restore the electricity and water connections. It maintained that the services had been disconnected without prior notice or an apparent valid reason, despite all dues having been paid. The Board also asserted that the connections had been lawfully in place for decades.
The NDMC opposed the plea, arguing that demolition work was still underway in the area and that restoring the electricity connection could pose a risk to public safety. It further submitted that the Land and Development Office (L&DO), which is overseeing the demolition and is expected to take possession of the land, had not been impleaded in the petition.
Although the mosque was not a party to the proceedings concerning the eviction of around 700 slum dwellers and the Race Course Club, the NDMC’s counsel orally submitted that its premises were covered by a High Court judgment dated August 25. That ruling had cleared the way for the eviction of slum dwellers living near the Prime Minister’s residence on Race Course Road. The residents have since been rehabilitated in Savda Ghevra, located nearly 50 km away.
In dismissing Haroon’s petition, the court observed that the Waqf Board, which it described as the “original occupant” of the premises, had not challenged the disconnection of electricity. It also held that Haroon, having been appointed as imam by the Board, had no independent right to the premises that would allow him to claim a violation of his fundamental rights over the disconnection.
The court further noted that determining the petitioner’s rights over the property and establishing whether the mosque fell outside the scope of the August 25 judgment would require adjudication of disputed facts, which could not be undertaken in the present writ petition., The case also comes against the backdrop of the Delhi Waqf Board functioning without an elected body. Its elected members’ tenure expired in August 2023, and bureaucrats appointed by the Lieutenant Governor assumed charge in January 2024. The Board has continued to operate under their administration since then.
In its order, the High Court concluded that the questions raised in the petition were beyond the scope of the proceedings and declined to grant the relief sought by the imam.
