Supreme Court rejects Delhi Waqf Board’s claim over Gurdwara in Shahdara

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday dismissed the Delhi Waqf Board’s claim over a property in east Delhi’s Shahdara being used as a gurdwara since 1947. The Delhi Waqf Board had filed a petition challenging the 2010 order of the Delhi High Court that held that the property in Shahdara had been used as a gurdwara since 1947 and the waqf board could not establish it to be “waqf property”.

The bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed the appeal moved by the Waqf Board against Delhi High Court’s decision to reject its plea in 2010.

Justice Sharma said the Waqf Board should have given up the claim on its own. However, Senior Advocate Sanjoy Ghose, appearing for the Board, said the lower courts had held that a mosque was there, but “now some kind of gurdwara is there”.

“Not some kind of. A proper functioning gurdwara. Once there is a gurdwara, let it be. A religious structure is already functioning there. You should yourself relinquish that claim, you see,” the court said while dismissing the appeal.

As per the Waqf Board, the mosque in question in Shahdara was “Masjid Takia Babbar Shah”. It claimed that the mosque had existed since “time immemorial” and was dedicated for religious purposes.

However, the defendant had argued that the property is not a waqf property, as the owner of the property, Mohd Ahsaan, had sold it to him in 1953. The Delhi High Court had ruled in favour of the defendant.

“Defendant was admittedly in occupation of this property since 1947-48. It is also true that the defendant was not able to adduce any document of title to evidence the purchase of this property, yet this does not in any manner benefit the plaintiff, who has to establish his own case and prove it to enable him to obtain a decree of possession,” the Delhi High Court had said in its ruling.

Further, the high court relied upon a 1979 Supreme Court decision in the Board of Muslim Waqfs, Rajasthan case, where the top court held that where a stranger who is a non-Muslim is in possession of a certain property, his right, title, and interest therein cannot be put in jeopardy merely because the property is included in the list published under the Act.

The order comes at a time when another bench of the top court has reserved its decision on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which expands government oversight in regulating waqf properties.