The Delhi High Court on Friday observed that water and electricity supplies to the Race Course Masjid cannot be disconnected without prior notice, particularly as the mosque is a notified property under the relevant statutes. Justice Subramonium Prasad questioned the NDMC over the disconnection of electricity, observing that the civic body could not cut off the supply without issuing prior notice. “You cannot disconnect electricity without notice,” he said, as reported by the Indian Express.
The observations were made during the hearing of a fresh petition filed by the mosque’s imam, challenging a single-judge bench order that had refused to direct the restoration of water and electricity connections to the mosque. The division bench issued notices to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Waqf Board, seeking their responses within two weeks. The court has scheduled the next hearing for December 14.
Advocate M. Sufian Siddiqui, counsel for the mosque’s imam, Mohammed Haroon, submitted before the division bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Renu Bhatnagar on Friday that the Centre was citing a Delhi High Court judgment concerning the removal of alleged encroachers from three jhuggi clusters opposite the Prime Minister’s residence. He argued that the mosque had not been a party to the proceedings and, therefore, the judgment could not be relied upon in the matter concerning the mosque, the Indian Express reported.
Earlier, in the month of October, the imam of Delhi’s historic Race Course Masjid alleged that the authorities served him a six-day notice to vacate the premises, putting the future of the place of worship, located near Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence, in question.
Imam Mohammed Haroon alleged that the Land and Development Office (L&DO) had disconnected the mosque’s electricity and water supply and locked its gates, restricting worshippers from entering the premises to offer namaz. Journalist and Social Activist Huda Zariwala also told FoEJ Media about the disconnection of the mosque’s electricity and water supply.
“We cannot be stopped from offering prayers at a place of worship,” she said.
“We are concerned about our mosque. We will not allow this mosque to be demolished,” she said.
On 29 October 2026, the Delhi High Court declined to order the Centre to reopen the Race Course masjid for prayers, saying it could not force the government to grant access while demolition was under way around the mosque. In return, the Centre committed on record not to demolish the mosque until it decides the Delhi Waqf Board’s representation, which it said would happen within four weeks.
The mosque and the land around it
The Race Course masjid is a small, notified Waqf mosque that now sits alone inside the 53-acre Race Course compound the Centre has cleared next to the Prime Minister’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. Everything around it, the Delhi Race Club, the Jaipur Polo Ground, and roughly 700 slum households, has been taken over or demolished in 2026.
