The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking to restrain the Union government and the Prime Minister from offering a ceremonial chadar at the tomb of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti during the annual Urs at the Ajmer Sharif dargah, holding that the matter was “not justiciable.”

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard the petition briefly before concluding, “In our opinion, the issues raised in this petition are not justiciable. The petition is therefore dismissed.”

The plea was filed as a public interest litigation (PIL) by Jitender Singh, president of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, through advocate Barun Kumar Sinha. It sought directions to prevent the Prime Minister and other Union officials from offering ceremonial homage such as a chadar at the dargah. The petition argued that such acts were contrary to the will of the people, national sovereignty, and the ethos of the Constitution.

During the hearing, Sinha contended that the petition challenged “state-sponsored ceremonial honours, official patronage, and symbolic recognition” extended to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. He argued that the Ajmer dargah did not qualify as a religious denomination protected under Article 26 of the Constitution, relying on the 1961 Constitution bench judgment in Dargah Committee, Ajmer and Another Vs Syed Hussain Ali and Others.

Sinha also informed the court that a civil suit had been filed in 2024 before a trial court in Ajmer, seeking relief regarding the site. The suit, still pending, alleged unauthorised occupation of a Hindu temple by the dargah.

The Supreme Court, however, was not persuaded that the issues raised warranted judicial intervention under its writ jurisdiction. The bench clarified that the dismissal of the PIL would not affect the pending civil proceedings in Ajmer, noting in its order: “Dismissal of this petition will not affect the civil suit.”

The order comes weeks after the Supreme Court declined to urgently list the plea when it was mentioned for immediate hearing on December 22, ahead of the 814th annual Urs at the Ajmer Sharif dargah. On that day, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju offered the ceremonial chadar on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, continuing a long-standing practice observed by successive Prime Ministers since Independence.

The petitioner had challenged the constitutional validity of the ceremonial honours, claiming that official patronage of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was arbitrary and lacked legal or constitutional basis. The plea cited historical accounts suggesting that Chishti arrived in India during the invasions of Shahabuddin Ghori in the 12th century and was associated with foreign conquests and conversion campaigns, with the shrine institutionalised only later.

It argued that the state’s ceremonial recognition of such a historical figure undermined India’s constitutional dignity and sovereignty, and sought a blanket prohibition on the Prime Minister and other authorities from offering ceremonial homage at the dargah, including the chadar.

The Supreme Court’s dismissal effectively allows the continuation of the long-standing practice of Prime Ministers offering ceremonial homage during the Urs, while leaving the pending civil suit in Ajmer untouched. The judgment underscores the principle that issues of ceremonial practice involving the state, especially where they intersect with historical and religious sensitivities, may not always fall within the ambit of justiciability in the courts.