'Unnecessary Attempt To Rake Up Past': Delhi High Court Junks PIL Against 46-Year-Old Wakf Notification Listing Mosques

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation challenging a 46 years old Wakf notification listing certain mosques in the city's Jahangirpuri area, holding that the plea was an “unnecessary attempt to rake up the past” by reopening settled issues after several decades.A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that the proviso appended to Section 6(1) of the Muslim Wakfs Act, 1954 bars institution of any suit before the Civil Court after expiry of one year from the date of publication of the list of wakf under Section 5(2). “Thus, if an ordinary civil remedy is barred by proviso appended to Section 6(1) of the Act, 1954, entertaining a writ petition seeking declaration that the certain properties enlisted in the impugned notification are not Wakf properties, that too after 46 years, in our opinion would legally be impermissible.”Petitioner had challenged Sunni wakf properties enlisted at Serial No. 26, 27 and 29, namely, (i) Mosque locally known as Jama Masjid, Jahangir Puri, Delhi, (ii) Mosque, Jahangir Puri, Delhi, locally known as Moti Masjid and (iii) Masjid Jahangir Puri, Delhi. Counsel representing the Wakf Board has opposed the very maintainability of the writ petition by stating that challenge to a notification issued in the year 1980 after a lapse of about 46 years would not be permissible.Agreeing, the High Court remarked that any notification made about 46 years ago cannot be permitted to be challenged on flimsy grounds. Even on merits, the Court observed, the impugned notification was issued after an inquiry conducted by the Commissioner of Wakfs, which is a statutory authority, under Section 4(3) of the Act, 1954 and the list of wakf properties was published under the impugned notification only on examination of the said report received from the State Government which was based on the inquiry conducted by the Commissioner of Wakfs. The Court added that Petitioner appears to be habitual of filing the petitions describing them as public interest litigation petitions and he can't be permitted to undermine the purity of the stream of PIL in the country.As such, the PIL was dismissed.Appearance: Mr. Umesh Chandra Sharma and Mr. Vikas Sharma, Mr. Yogesh Aggarwal, Mr. Neeraj Chauhan, Mr. Mohit Kumar, Ms. Khushbu Khatri, Mr. Lalit Goyal, Ms. Preeti Singh and Mr. Subhash Pal, Advs. for Petitioner; Mr. Manu Chaturvedi, S.C. with Mr. Ahmed Jamal Siddiqui, Mr. K. K. Rai, Mr. Madhav Tripathi, Advs. for MCD. Mr. Sayed Abdul Haseeb, CGSC with Mr. Varun Pratap Singh, GP for UOI Ms. Shobhana Takiar, S.C. with Mr.Kuljeet Singh, Adv. for DDA. Mr. Sanjoy Ghose, Sr. Adv. with Ms.Farahat Jahan Rehmani, ASC, Mr.Firoz I. Khan, Mr. I. Ahmed, Mr.R. Mandal, Ms. M. Ali, Ms.Nazma, Advs. for R-5. Case title: Save India Foundation v. MCDCitation: 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 226Case no.: W.P.(C) 2278/2026Click here to read order

'Unnecessary Attempt To Rake Up Past': Delhi High Court Junks PIL Against 46-Year-Old Wakf Notification Listing Mosques

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