‘No disconnection without notice’: Delhi HC pulls up NDMC over Race Course Masjid
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The Delhi High Court today questioned the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) over its decision to disconnect the water and electricity supply to the Race Course Masjid, observing that utilities cannot be withdrawn without notice when the mosque is a notified property under the relevant statutes.
“You cannot disconnect electricity without notice,” Justice Subramonium Prasad remarked while addressing the NDMC during a hearing on Friday.
The division bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Renu Bhatnagar was hearing an appeal filed by the mosque’s imam, Md Haroon, challenging an October 15 order of a single judge who had declined to direct the restoration of essential utilities.
Issuing notice on the appeal, the bench sought responses from the NDMC and the Delhi Waqf Board within two weeks and scheduled the next hearing for December 14.
The mosque stands within the Race Course Club, spread across nearly 53 acres near the Prime Minister’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. It is a Waqf-notified property and a Grade II heritage structure, notified in 2009, and a petition before the court has raised concerns that it could face demolition amid the Centre’s ongoing reclamation of land in the surrounding area.
On October 29, the Centre, through the Land and Development Office (L&DO), had informed the High Court that it would decide on a representation submitted by the Delhi Waqf Board within four weeks and would refrain from taking coercive action against the mosque in the meantime.
Appearing for the imam, advocate M Sufian Siddiqui argued that the authorities were relying on a separate High Court judgment concerning the eviction of nearly 700 families from three jhuggi clusters opposite the Prime Minister’s residence, although the mosque had never been a party to those proceedings.