The Supreme Court refused to hear the Aland Ladle Mashaik Dargah management’s plea seeking to stop Maha Shivaratri and Hindu rituals on its premises, as Justices Dipankar Datta and S.C. Sharma held that an Article 32 petition was not maintainable.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court declined to entertain a petition from the management of the Aland Ladle Mashaik Dargah, which sought to prohibit the conduct of Hindu Maha Shivaratri puja and other Hindu rituals on the dargah’s premises.
The management filed the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, allowing individuals whose fundamental rights have been violated to approach the Supreme Court directly for relief.
However, a Bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and S.C. Sharma expressed that an Article 32 petition was not suitable for this matter, leading to the eventual withdrawal of the plea.
The petition raised concerns about perceived coordinated efforts by Hindu groups to alter the religious identity of the dargah by obtaining interim court orders for Shivaratri pujas. They requested the Court’s intervention to prevent any changes to the site’s religious character.
Importantly, when the case was mentioned before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi the previous day, they questioned why an Article 32 petition was submitted instead of first appealing to the High Court.
Earlier CJI Kant remarked,
“Why is everything coming in Article 32? … The impression created is that pleas are coming because the law is convenient, and the message is that the High Court is defunct,”
The dispute centers around a shrine associated with the 14th-century Sufi saint Hazrat Shaikh Alauddin Ansari (commonly known as Ladle Mashaik) and the 15th-century Hindu saint Raghava Chaitanya. Both their remains are located at the site, which also features a structure known as the Raghava Chaitanya Shivling.
Both Hindu and Muslim worshippers frequent the shrine. However, tensions escalated in 2022 concerning worship rights after some miscreants allegedly desecrated the Shivling.
In February 2025, the Karnataka High Court approved a request from 15 members of the Hindu community to conduct Shivaratri puja at the Raghava Chaitanya Shivling, which took place under heavy security.
The previous year, Hindu pujas were also conducted for Shivaratri without incident, following a Court order that permitted 15 Hindus to perform rituals in the dargah.
The management’s plea to the Supreme Court expressed concerns about a systematic attempt to alter the fundamental character of the religious site through interim court orders.
The petition claimed,
“It is respectfully submitted that the pattern is unmistakable and deeply troubling. What cannot be proved through evidence and adjudication is being manufactured through interim orders sought from the High Court. What is prohibited by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, is sought to be achieved through police-facilitated entry during festivals,”
The petition noted that in 1968, the Town Municipal Council of Aland rejected an application for permission to construct a Samadhi or Temple within the dargah, affirming that the site was the Mazaar of Hazrat Mardan-e-Gaib, surrounded by Muslim graves, with no basis for any non-Wakf construction.
Despite this established position, continued attempts have been made to challenge the religious character of the shrine through civil litigation, all of which have been unsuccessful, the plea stated.
The management further alleged that when litigation failed, communal mobilization occurred, citing an incident on February 1, 2022, when the Shree Siddalingaswamy Karuneswar Temple at Andola announced an “Aland Chalo” padayatra to “cleanse a Shivalinga” at the Mazaar on Mahashivaratri.
When the Karnataka Wakf Tribunal restrained this initiative, it was allegedly circumvented through festival-specific applications and suits seeking permission to perform puja during Maha Shivaratri, the petition asserted.
The plea added,
“Each proceeding is strategically timed, each invokes a different forum, and each is designed to create a foothold for subsequent proceedings,”
The dargah also noted that the latest attempt is a writ petition filed by Sidramayya Hiremath in 2026 before the Karnataka High Court, seeking a direction for state and police authorities to enable him and other devotees to perform pooja within the dargah on February 15, Mahashivaratri, along with police protection.
A similar petition was previously filed in 2025 by the same individual, which resulted in the High Court allowing 15 individuals to enter and conduct puja on Mahashivaratri.
The now-withdrawn plea contended,
“These petitions are being filed year after year around Shivaratri only to create a foothold for religious entry, converting temporary access into an asserted practice, and subsequently reopening the character of the site through repeated litigation,”