Unnecessary attempt to rake up the past: Delhi High Court (again) raps NGO that filed 37 PILs against mosques

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging a 1980 notification that declared three mosques in the city’s Jahangirpuri area as waqf properties [Save India Foundation v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi & Ors]. 

A Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia rejected the petition filed by Save India Foundation, the organisation that has been chastised by the High Court multiple times for filing repeated PILs against mosques and dargahs. 

In a detailed order, the Court recorded that the petitioner organisation has unnecessarily attempted to rake up the past and the petition is neither bona fide nor in public interest.

“The motive behind filing the writ petition also does not appear to be bonafide. We are also of the opinion that any notification made about 46 years ago cannot be permitted to be challenged on flimsy grounds,” the Court observed. 

It also noted that Save India Foundation has filed as many as 37 PILs between 2024 and 2026, along with 11 writ petitions. The Court warned against the misuse of PILs, stressing that “the purity of the stream of public interest litigation in the country should not, at any cost, be permitted to be undermined by any litigant.”

Save India Foundation had approached the High Court to quash a notification issued by the Delhi Waqf Board on April 10, 1980, under the Muslim Waqfs Act, 1954.

The notification had listed several waqf properties in Delhi, including Jama Masjid Jahangir Puri, Moti Masjid and Masjid Jahangir Puri at serial numbers 26, 27 and 29. The petitioner argued that the land on which these structures stand had been acquired by the government in 1977 under the Land Acquisition Act for the planned development of Delhi and compensation had been paid to landowners. It contended that the mosques were therefore illegal encroachments on public land and could not have been declared waqf properties.

The Waqf Board opposed the petition’s maintainability, arguing that the notification was issued after due inquiry by the Commissioner of Waqfs under Sections 4 and 5 of the 1954 Act. It also pointed out that Section 6 of the Act provided a one-year limitation period to challenge the inclusion of properties in the wakf list before a civil court.

After considering the case, the High Court agreed with the Waqf Board, observing that any challenge to the 1980 notification was “legally impermissible” after such a long lapse of time, particularly when the statute itself barred civil suits beyond one year from publication.

Therefore, it dismissed the PIL. 

Advocates Umesh Chandra Sharma, Vikas Sharma, Yogesh Aggarwal, Neeraj Chauhan, Mohit Kumar, Khushbu Khatri, Lalit Goyal, Preeti Singh and Subhash Pal appeared for the petitioner. 

Senior Advocate Sanjoy Ghose with Advocates Farahat Jahan Rehmani, Firoz I Khan, I Ahmed, R Mandal, M Ali and Nazma represented the Delhi Waqf Board. 

Advocates Manu Chaturvedi, Ahmed Jamal Siddiqui, KK Rai and Madhav Tripathi represented the MCD. 

The Union of India was represented through Central Government Standing Counsel Sayed Abdul Haseeb as well as Advocate Varun Pratap Singh. 

Advocates Shobhana Takiar and Kuljeet Singh represented the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). 

[Read Order]