Supreme Court dismisses PIL against PM Modi offering chadar at Ajmer Sharif dargah: 'Not justiciable'

Ajmer Dargah (File photo)

• SC dismissed PIL against PM Modi offering chadar at Ajmer Sharif dargah
• Court said the issue is not justiciable and the petition is now infructuous
• Dismissal does not affect ongoing civil suit in Ajmer regarding the dargah

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The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to restrain Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government from offering a ceremonial chadar at the Ajmer Sharif dargah during the 814th annual Urs of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, holding that the issues raised were beyond judicial scrutiny.

According to a report by Bar and Bench, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the matter could not be adjudicated by the court. “In our opinion, the issues raised in this petition are not justiciable. The petition is therefore dismissed,” the bench said during a brief hearing.

The court also noted that since the chadar had already been offered, the issue no longer survived. “This is infructuous now. This is not a justiciable issue. No issue raised is justiciable. Writ petition is dismissed,” the order stated.

At the same time, the top court clarified that its decision would not affect the civil litigation pending before a trial court in Ajmer. “Suit is pending, pursue it. This order shall have no bearing on the pending civil suit,” the bench said, adding that the dismissal of the writ petition would not prejudice the outcome of the ongoing proceedings.

The plea was filed by Jitender Singh, president of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, through advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, in the nature of a PIL. It sought directions prohibiting the Prime Minister and other state authorities from extending what it described as “state-sponsored ceremonial honours, official patronage and symbolic recognition” to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti by way of offering a chadar at the Ajmer Sharif dargah.

During the hearing, Sinha argued that such official acts were contrary to constitutional principles and lacked legal backing. He relied on the 1961 Constitution bench judgment in Dargah Committee, Ajmer and Another Vs Syed Hussain Ali and Others to contend that the Ajmer dargah did not constitute a religious denomination protected under Article 26 of the Constitution.

He also informed the court that a civil suit had been instituted in Ajmer in 2024, alleging unauthorised occupation of a Hindu temple by the dargah, and that the matter was currently sub judice.

The bench, however, was unconvinced that these submissions warranted the exercise of writ jurisdiction. It declined to interfere, maintaining that the nature of the controversy raised did not call for constitutional adjudication.

The Supreme Court’s order came weeks after it had refused to urgently list the plea when it was mentioned on December 22, ahead of the Urs. On the same day, Union minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju offered the ceremonial chadar on behalf of Prime Minister Modi, continuing a long-standing tradition followed by successive Prime Ministers since Independence.

Earlier, a similar application had been moved before an Ajmer court by Vishnu Gupta, then president of Hindu Sena, as part of an ongoing suit claiming that the Ajmer Sharif dargah was built on the site of a demolished Shiva temple.