Plea In Supreme Court Challenges Prime Minister Offering 'Chadar' At Ajmer Sharif Dargah

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court against the extension of State-sponsored ceremonial honor and symbolic recognition to Islamic scholar and mystic Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and/or the Ajmer Dargah by the Union and its instrumentalities.

It also seeks stay on the offering of a chadar by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ajmer Sharif dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

The matter was mentioned today before a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, but it refused to urgently list the case today. The petitioners were instead asked to approach the Registry.

The petitioners, one Jitender Singh and one Vishnu Gupta, are presidents of Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh and Hindu Sena respectively. They are aggrieved by the "continued practice of State-sponsored ceremonial honour, official patronage and symbolic recognition" extended to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti by various instrumentalities of the Union of India. It is their contention that the same is unconstitutional, arbitrary, historically unfounded and contrary to the constitutional ethos, dignity and sovereignty of the Republic of India.

In the context of the prayer seeking to restrain PM Modi from offering a chadar at the Ajmer dargah, the petitioners submit that the practice of a PM offering chadar at Ajmer dargah was initiated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947 and has continued since without any legal or constitutional basis.

They cite the Constitutional Bench decision in Dargah Committee, Ajmer v. Syed Hussain Ali, to argue that the Ajmer dargah does not constitute a religious denomination under Article 26. The petitioners also contend that offering of a chadar by Head of the Government at the Ajmer dargah is against the will of the people.

Notably, one of the petitioners has also made a representation to PM Modi to refrain from offering a chadar at the Ajmer dargah.

The petition has been drawn by Advocate Barun Kumar Sinha and filed through AoR Anantha Narayana MG.

Case Title: Jitender Singh v. Union of India, Diary No. 74179/2025