NEW DELHI (The Thursday Times) — A dispute has erupted over Delhi’s 125-year-old Race Course Mosque, located near the prime minister’s residence, after its imam said the premises had received a six-day eviction notice and could face demolition.
Imam Maulana Mohammad Haroon, who has served the mosque for more than 40 years, alleged that electricity and water supplies to the premises were disconnected on 7 October, and that authorities had directed the mosque to be vacated within six days. He said the mosque had no outstanding dues on its utility bills, and that a court petition he filed was dismissed on the grounds that only the Waqf Board could bring such a case. The notice and the circumstances around it have not been officially confirmed.
The mosque, which can hold around 800 worshippers, is registered as Waqf property under a 1977 gazette notification and is listed as a heritage site by the New Delhi Municipal Council, according to AIMIM Delhi president Shoaib Jamai and Delhi Waqf Board member Amanatullah Khan. The imam has linked the disconnection to wider demolition activity by the Land and Development Office around the nearby Safdarjung Tomb area and adjoining slum clusters.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi urged Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to intervene immediately, questioning in a post on X why the Waqf Board had not acted to protect a gazetted Waqf property and noting that Delhi currently has no functioning Waqf Board. A delegation from Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind separately met Rijiju to seek the mosque’s protection and the restoration of its electricity and water connections.
Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also raised concern over the reported notice, describing the mosque as “a gazetted Waqf property since 1977 and a listed heritage site” facing eviction within six days, and asking whether action against Muslim places of worship was “becoming normal.” He linked the episode to his broader opposition to recent amendments to Waqf law that expanded government control over Muslim religious endowments through appointed nominees.
The mosque’s legal status and the ownership of the land it sits on remain disputed, and no official confirmation of a demolition timeline has been issued.∎
