Three-and-a-half years after the managing committee of the Delhi Waqf Board (DWB) challenged Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) decision to stop namaz at Mughal masjid located inside the Qutub Minar complex, the Delhi High Court has directed the ASI, under the Ministry of Culture, to seek instructions on whether it will hear or respond to a representation that the waqf board had made before it in May 2022.
The direction, which came on Friday, was issued even as the Supreme Court, in April 2023, had requested the HC to take up DWB’s petition – moved in 2022 – and “decide the same in accordance with law on its own merits as expeditiously as possible”.
The petitioner, the DWB managing committee, is seeking that ASI be restrained from obstructing or interfering in offering of namaz at the masjid. The ASI had reportedly stopped the religious practice on May 13, 2022.
While the Qutub Minar complex is a centrally-protected and UNESCO World Heritage site, the committee has contended that the masjid does not fall within the protected part of the monument.
While the complex was officially notified as a centrally-protected monument in
1914, the petitioner has referred to communications dating back to 1949 — from the then imam of the masjid to various authorities — to establish that the practice of offering namaz in the masjid was prevalent for decades.
It has also relied on a book, Monuments of Delhi, published in 1920, which refers to the mosque being in use at the time. The petitioner has further pointed out that the mosque was notified as a Waqf property on April 16, 1970, and the Act shall have an overriding effect over any other law to the contrary. The committee has contended that the namaz was stopped without any authority in law, and without showing any notification/order or notice, thus violating the principles of natural justice.
However, the Centre has submitted that the government’s gazette notification declaring the Qutub precincts as protected “prevails over the provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995” and the “land dedicated for pious & religious purpose is not immune from its vesting with the State”.
Days after namaz was stopped, the committee had made representations to the ASI, including the director general, as well as to the Mehrauli police station SHO. However, the ASI never responded to the representations.
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Addressing the committee’s advocate, M Sufian Siddiqui, Justice Anish Dayal on Friday orally remarked, “We are familiar with Qutub Minar complex, this is not a run of the mill situation where an immediate order can be passed. Let them (ASI) take instructions if your (managing committee of DWB) representation can be considered… one of your grievances is that (you were not given an opportunity of hearing before the action was taken).”
Siddiqui, however, argued, “Even assuming it (Mughal masjid) is (within the protected precincts)… the statute gives me the power to perform namaz. And the moot question is, what procedure have they followed (to stop namaz)… They’ve not followed any procedure while carrying out this exercise of arbitrary stoppage of namaz on May 13, 2022.”
“Prior to that, it is undisputed that namaz was taking place. So… they have resorted to deliberate falsehoods and prevarications in their counter-affidavits by neither admitting nor disputing that they have stopped the performance of namaz in order to obviate the judicial scrutiny that would have followed from the court.”
The Centre, through the Ministry of Culture and ASI, in written submissions filed on July 25, 2025 and a reply filed in 2023, has told HC that the “Qutub Minar (World Heritage Site) is not a place of worship” and “since the time of its protection the said monument or any part of it, has not been used for any type of worship,” “since no one in continuous capacity offered prayers in the mosque”.
According to the Centre, the mosque “is a protected mosque as per the provisions of AMASR Act, 1958”, as it also falls within the fenced Qutub archaeological area.
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The committee has, however, emphasised that there is “overwhelming evidence to prove that the mosque in question was under religious use, i.e., regular prayers were held at the said mosque at the time when the other structures in adjacent area were declared as centrally protected monuments”.
The Mughal period mosque, distinct with its 3 bulbous domes and situated on the right side of the eastern entrance gateway to the otherwise Mamluk and Tughlaq dynasty complex, is one of the two masjids situated in the complex, the other being Quwwat-Ul-Islam mosque.
In 2021, a civil court in Saket had rejected a suit seeking restoration of Hindu and Jain deities inside Quwwat Ul-Islam mosque. However, an appeal was filed before the district court, which continues to remain pending. The stoppage of namaz at the Mughal masjid had come months after the appeal was admitted by the district court.
