The 150-year-old Sunehri Masjid is a Category III heritage building. On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court was notified by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) that the NDMC will take public complaints against its proposed removal into consideration. The idea was prompted by the NDMC’s concerns that the mosque impedes traffic movement.
The NDMC’s Additional Solicitor General (ASG), Chetan Sharma, informed Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav’s bench that hundreds of objections—including those from the mosque’s imam, Abdul Aziz—had been received and would be examined.
Aziz claimed that insufficient study and facts in the plan proved the mosque was the source of the traffic problems, and he had filed a plea against the NDMC’s notice. His appeal came after the Delhi Waqf Board’s (DWB) earlier high court bid to stop the mosque’s demolition was denied.
Senior attorney Viraj R. Datar, who was representing the imam throughout the hearing, consented to withdraw the petition in exchange for the court ordering the NDMC to take objections into legal consideration. The petition was dismissed by the court, which also accepted the NDMC’s pledge to examine the objections.
The court was previously informed by the Delhi traffic police that the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) was handling the demolition of the mosque. The mosque is a grade III heritage building, and the NDMC wants to take it down because they say it blocks traffic.
Fearing that the mosque might be demolished, the DWB had earlier asked the court to step in, but the court rejected their request following confirmation from the community organization.
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