PolicyUrban Affairs
Race Course mosque near PM's residence handed six-day eviction notice
The Land and Development Office says the mosque stands on government land and is unauthorised. It is on the NDMC's heritage list, and Owaisi and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind have asked Kiren Rijiju to step in.
Key points
- The Land and Development Office has told the mosque to vacate within six days.
- The NDMC lists "Mosque and Campus, Race Course" among its notified heritage properties.
- A Jamiat delegation met Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who promised to make every effort.
The Land and Development Office has served a six-day eviction notice on the Race Course mosque in New Delhi, a short distance from the Prime Minister’s official residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.
The office, which works under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and manages government-owned and leasehold property in the capital, says the mosque stands on government land and has declared it unauthorised. The notice was served on Monday. Representatives of the mosque said its electricity and water supplies have since been cut.
The building is no ordinary structure on the official record. The New Delhi Municipal Council lists “Mosque and Campus, Race Course” among its notified heritage properties. The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind says the site appears in the NDMC heritage list cited in the 1977 Delhi Gazette and in a revised list kept by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
A Jamiat delegation led by its general secretary, Maulana Mohammad Hakimuddin Qasmi, met Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday on behalf of the organisation’s president, Maulana Mahmood Madani. It asked him to protect the mosque and its adjoining graveyard, to restore power and water, and to let worshippers “offer namaz without obstruction”. The Jamiat said Rijiju assured the delegation that he would make every possible effort in the matter. It has also sought reports from the Delhi Waqf Board and the NDMC and urged that nothing be demolished before the legal process is complete.
AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who says the mosque has been a gazetted waqf property since 1977, argued that it is protected as “waqf by user” under the amended waqf law. “The race course masjid case needs @KirenRijiju’s urgent intervention,” he wrote on X. He also accused the waqf board of failing to challenge the order.
The notice is reported to be part of a wider eviction drive in the Race Course Road area that also covers slum dwellings. Counted from Monday, the six-day window closes around the end of this week.