Today, the Supreme Court of India rejected a plea seeking to restrain Prime Minister Narendra Modi from offering a Chadar at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti during the 814th Urs at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi mention that the issue raised was not justiciable and, in any event, had become infructuous as the chadar had already been offered.

“This is infructuous now. No issue raised is justiciable. The writ petition is dismissed,” the Court observed.

Further, the bench clarified that its order would not affect the civil suit pending before a court in Ajmer concerning the Dargah.

“The suit is pending; pursue it. This order shall have no bearing on the pending civil suit,” the Court said.

The offering of a chadar at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah is a long-standing tradition followed by previous Prime Ministers as well.

Notably, a similar plea had earlier been filed before an Ajmer court by Vishnu Gupta, then president of Hindu Sena, as part of an ongoing suit alleging that the Ajmer Sharif Dargah was built on the site of a demolished Shiva temple.

Gupta had contended that the Central government’s act of sending a chadar to what he described as a “disputed structure” undermined judicial independence and the right to a fair trial while the matter remains pending before the trial court.