"Let Gurdwara Be... Relinquish Your Right": Supreme Court To Delhi Waqf Board

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a Delhi Waqf Board plea claiming land in the city's Shahdhara area on which a gurdwara has been functioning since the Partition. The court said that since the gurdwara has been operational for decades the Waqf Board should back down.

In the hearing today senior advocate Sanjoy Ghose, arguing for the Waqf Board, said the lower courts had, in fact, held a mosque had been functioning there before the gurdwara came up.

To this Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said, "Not 'some kind of'... a proper functioning gurdwara, and once there is a gurdwara, let it be. A religious structure is already functioning."

"You should yourself relinquish that claim, you see," the court told the Waqf Board.

According to the Waqf Board, which had approached the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court turned down its claim in 2010, the mosque that predated the gurdwara was the Masjid Takia Babbar Shah, and that it was built on land dedicated as waqf, or for religious purposes.

The Delhi Wakf Board filed for recovery of the land as Waqf property.

The defendant had argued, in the High Court and Supreme Court, the property ceased to become a waqf as the then-owner, Mohd Ahsaan, sold it in 1953.

Fifteen years ago the High Court had admitted the fact of sale and possession, but also touched on the inability of the defendant to "adduce any document of title to evidence the purchase of this property". That, though, "does not benefit the plaintiff", the High Court said.

The court noted the plaintiff, i.e., the Waqf Board had to establish its own case.

Waqf and waqf properties are coming under increased scrutiny now following the government enacting amendments to laws governing the management of Waqf properties nationwide.

Those amendments had been challenged by opposition parties in the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on that clutch of petitions. Meanwhile, however, the government this week said it would press on with one of the revisions - the mandatory registration of Waqf properties.

If any Waqf property is not registered, it will be considered as disputed and the matter will be sent to the Waqf Tribunal, sources said. If registration is delayed due to some technical or any other major issue, an extra one to two months can be granted.