The Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Centre and other authorities on the future of the over-100-year-old Qadeemi Masjid at Krishi Bhawan, after redevelopment tender drawings appeared not to show the mosque at its existing location.
Justice Anish Dayal issued notice to the Central government, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the North Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Waqf Board. The respondents have been asked to file their responses within four weeks.
The petition was filed by the mosque’s caretaking committee, which has sought directions restraining the Centre, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the CPWD and the NDMC from demolishing or removing the structure. The committee has also asked that a reasonable, proximate and adequate alternative prayer facility be provided if retaining the mosque at its current location is found to be genuinely unavoidable or incompatible with the approved redevelopment plan.
The mosque stands in the open court of the Krishi Bhawan premises. According to the petition, employees of Krishi Bhawan and neighbouring Central government offices have offered prayers there since Independence and over the subsequent decades. The committee has described it as an established prayer facility for people working in and around the government office complex during working hours.
The CPWD, which functions under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, floated a tender on January 19 for constructing Common Central Secretariat buildings 4 and 5 at the sites of Krishi Bhawan and Shastri Bhawan. The tender documents reportedly do not list the mosque among the structures proposed for removal. However, the detailed drawings attached to the tender also do not show it on the map of the proposed new building.
The petition has described this as an apparent inconsistency requiring clarification before any irreversible action is taken. It states that the redevelopment documentation does not expressly identify the mosque as a structure to be demolished, while its absence from the proposed building plans has created apprehension about its eventual treatment.
The mosque is not listed as a protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India. It does, however, figure in a list of Waqf properties published in the Delhi Administration’s 1970 Gazette. The petition said the committee was not seeking to question, obstruct or delay the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, but wanted the authorities to address the status of the structure and access to a prayer facility.
The committee has further stated that there is no comparable mosque in the immediate vicinity for employees and others who need to pray during working hours. The High Court’s notice now requires the authorities responsible for the redevelopment, municipal administration and Waqf oversight to clarify how the mosque has been accounted for in the project documentation. Their responses are due within four weeks.
