The Delhi High Court issued notice on a plea by the caretaking committee of the Qadeemi Masjid, located within the Krishi Bhavan compound, seeking continuity of a prayer facility amid the Central Vista redevelopment. The petitioners clarified that they do not oppose the project and seek no stay, only an assured, proximate place to pray.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has issued notice on a writ petition filed by the caretaking committee of the Qadeemi Masjid, a mosque situated within the compound of Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi, seeking that a prayer facility be preserved or a suitable alternative provided as the Central Vista Redevelopment Project proceeds, and directed the Union of India, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Waqf Board to file a response within four weeks [Qadeemi Masjid through its Caretaking Committee v. Union of India and Others].
Justice Anish Dayal passed the order, listing the matter for further hearing on November 2, 2026. This is a notice-stage order; the Court has not decided any of the issues, and the respondents’ position is yet to be placed on record.
What the petitioners seek
Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the petitioners, made the scope of the plea clear at the outset. He fairly stated that the petitioners are not seeking to stall the redevelopment of Krishi Bhavan and Shastri Bhavan, where the mosque stands, as planned by the Central Government, but seek a prayer facility in the newly envisaged structures, since the Qadeemi Masjid has served as a place of prayer for government employees and others working in the surrounding offices for several decades.
The petition, the Court recorded, expressly states that the petitioners have no objection to the Central Vista Redevelopment Project and do not seek any suspension or delay in the construction of the Common Secretariat Buildings. The petition is therefore confined to the treatment of the Qadeemi Masjid and the consequences for its established users. The relief sought is threefold: a direction restraining the authorities from demolishing or disturbing the mosque without first undertaking a fair, transparent and reasoned consideration of its continued retention; a direction to consider the feasibility of retaining it at its existing location while implementing the project; and, in the alternative, if retention is genuinely unavoidable, a direction to provide a reasonable, proximate and adequate alternative prayer facility.
The petitioners’ case on antiquity and waqf status
On the petitioners’ account, the Qadeemi Masjid is a structure of considerable antiquity, said to have been in existence for more than a century, with its existence predating the establishment of the present government complex and documented in historical records going back to 1945. It was submitted that in 1970 the Delhi Waqf Board notified the property as waqf property and recorded its antiquity, and that even when Krishi Bhavan, Shastri Bhavan and the surrounding government offices were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, the mosque continued to exist and was used by Muslim employees of those offices for offering prayers.
Significantly, the petitioners, as caretakers of the mosque, and the employees who pray there, acknowledged that the land underneath is government property. Their stated apprehension was limited to the ongoing redevelopment, which has commenced and which, they said, proposes the dismantling of the existing complex. The plea invokes the right to freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution, framing the request as one for continuity of an established prayer facility rather than a claim to obstruct a public project. These are the petitioners’ assertions, and they remain to be tested; the historical, title and waqf-status questions will fall to be examined once the respondents respond.
The order
Notice was accepted on behalf of the Union of India (respondents 1 and 3), the NDMC (respondent 2) and the Delhi Waqf Board (respondent 4). The Additional Solicitor General, appearing for the Union, stated that he would take instructions on the issue raised and file a response or status report by the next date. The Court directed the respondents to file their response within four weeks, with an advance copy to the petitioners, and listed the matter for November 2, 2026.
Why the case matters
The petition sits at the intersection of the right to freedom of religion under Article 25 and the State’s authority to redevelop public land and buildings, and it is notable for the deliberately narrow way the petitioners have framed it. By expressly disavowing any challenge to the Central Vista project and seeking only the continuity of a place of prayer, or a proximate alternative, the petitioners have sought to keep the matter within the compass of accommodation rather than confrontation. The legal question that emerges is a measured one: where a long-standing religious facility on government land lies in the path of an approved redevelopment, what obligation, if any, does the State have to consider its retention or to provide an alternative, and what process must precede any decision affecting it.
At this stage, the Court has done no more than issue notice and call for the respondents’ position, and nothing turns on the merits yet. The antiquity of the structure, its waqf status, the fact that it stands on government land, and the requirements of the redevelopment are all matters on which the Union, the NDMC and the Delhi Waqf Board will now place their stands. How the Court balances the users’ asserted right to a prayer facility against the exigencies of the redevelopment, and whether it directs retention, relocation or an alternative arrangement, will become clearer after the respondents file their replies. The matter is now listed for early November.
Case Title: Qadeemi Masjid through its Caretaking Committee v. Union of India and Others [W.P.(C) 13664/2026]
Bench: Justice Anish Dayal, Delhi High Court
Date of Order: September 17, 2026
Next Listed: November 2, 2026