New Delhi: Delhi High Court has restrained authorities from taking any action on a 17-acre graveyard in Civil Lines. It has directed the Centre to maintain status quo after the land and development office (L&DO) claimed ownership of the waqf-notified property and issued an eviction notice.
Justice Amit Mahajan passed the interim order on Nov 6 on a petition filed by the management of Qabristan Bagh Sher Jung. The court sought responses from the Centre and the Delhi Waqf Board and listed the matter for March 11, 2027, making it clear that no action should be taken concerning the property in the meantime. The graveyard, situated between Ludlow Castle Road and Under Hill Road, is managed by Anjuman Wakil-I-Quam Punjabian, a registered charitable society that has been in existence before 1910. The legal challenge followed an Oct 22 notice issued by the L&DO to four people identified as encroachers on a portion of the land in a civil suit instituted in 2018. They were asked to vacate within 15 days or face forcible eviction. The petition states that the graveyard was notified as waqf property in 1970. The following year, the Centre instituted a civil suit claiming ownership, contending that several properties in Delhi, including the graveyard, had been acquired between 1911 and 1915 during the development of the new capital.
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The graveyard management contested this claim before the high court.