Supreme Court declines urgent hearing on plea against PM’s chadar offering at Ajmer Dargah

New Delhi: A petition to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from performing a ceremonial chadar at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah during the 814th annual Urs of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti was rejected by the Supreme Court for immediate hearing.

The plea was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, as reported by Hindustan Times. Making his position clear, the Chief Justice said on Monday that the court would not list any matter on the same day merely on oral mentioning. The bench indicated that if the petition met the required threshold of urgency, it could be considered for listing on a later date, possibly December 26 or December 29.

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“No listing today,” the bench said, refusing the request for an immediate hearing. The petition challenges the proposed ceremonial offering at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah. This offering is a tradition that has been followed by successive Prime Ministers since Independence and according to media reports Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju is scheduled to offer the chadar on behalf of the Prime Minister as part of the Urs observances.

During the brief exchange, counsel for the petitioner argued that a similar matter relating to the Sankat Mochan Mandir was already pending before the court.The bench was not convinced that the situation required immediate judicial action when the attorney requested an urgent stay on the chadar offering.

The petition has been filed as a public interest litigation by Jitender Singh, president of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, through advocate Barun Kumar Sinha. It questions what it describes as “state-sponsored ceremonial honours, official patronage and symbolic recognition” extended to Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti by Union government authorities.

The plea contends that such practices are unconstitutional and arbitrary, and claims they run contrary to the constitutional ethos, dignity and sovereignty of the nation. Referring to historical accounts, the petitioner has argued that Chisti arrived in India during the 12th century, around the time of invasions led by Shahabuddin Ghori, and was allegedly linked to foreign conquest and religious conversion, with the institutionalisation of the dargah occurring much later.