Overview
- The Land and Development Office issued a notice saying the Race Course mosque must be vacated within six days after declaring the structure unauthorised, and mosque representatives say electricity and water have been cut.
- Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and political leaders including Asaduddin Owaisi have asked Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to intervene and to seek reports from the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Waqf Board.
- The mosque is listed on the NDMC heritage register and is cited in a 1977 Delhi Gazette entry that mosque leaders say establishes its status as a gazetted waqf protected by waqf law.
- Opposing claims center on L&DO’s position that the land is government property versus community assertions of long-standing waqf use, and authorities have been urged not to remove structures before legal and administrative reviews are completed.
- The dispute could trigger legal challenges or administrative reviews and will determine access for worshippers, the fate of an adjoining graveyard, and how heritage and waqf protections are applied in central Delhi.