Delhi High Court allows 500 devotees to visit residence of late Nirmal Singh Maharaj on his birthday

The Delhi High Court has passed an interim order allowing 500 devotees of late Nirmal Singh Maharaj (Guruji) to visit his residence in Delhi on his birthday on Friday..Justice Rekha Palli passed the order after a plea was filed by Sudha Ahuja stating that for the last 27 years, devotees have been visiting her residence, where Nirmal Singh Maharaj used to live. However, this year, the Residents Welfare Association (RWA) of the colony was causing hindrance to the visits of the devotees, she submitted.Nirmal Singh Maharaj had passed away in May 2007. He used to live at Ahuja's residence. According to lawyers familiar with the case, his bedroom and other belongings are still maintained there and hundreds of people still continue to visit the place. The Court was told that Ahuja had on July 3 proposed elaborate measures including permitting limited identified devotees in a rotational manner to her residence but, this was rejected by the RWA..After considering the case, the Bench put it to the RWA if, as an interim arrangement, Ahuja can be permitted to have 500 visitors in a staggered manner.The defendants challenged the maintainability of the plea but said that they would have no objection if the plaintiff (Ahuja) is permitted to have these guests between 10 am and 9 pm. However, they demanded that there should be a cap on the number of people present at her residence at any given point in time and the entry of guests should be subject to production of photo identity cards.Ahuja agreed to the conditions and said she will share the list of 500 devotees with the local police station today. “In the light of this stand taken by the parties, hearing is being deferred by directing that the parties will remain bound by the aforesaid interim arrangement. The parties further agree that till the next date, as proposed by the plaintiff, up to 100 guests on due production of their photo identity card, will be permitted to visit her residence on every Monday,” Justice Palli recorded. .The matter will now be considered on August 2..The suit was filed by Karanjawala & Company. Senior Advocate Rajiv Virmani, Sandeep Kapur (Senior Partner) along with advocates Manmeet Kaur (Principal Associate), Gurtejpal Singh, Suditi Batra, Gaurangi Khanna, Devashi Madan Gunjan Soni appeared for the plaintiff.Defendant RWA and its office bearers were represented through Senior Advocate Sunil Dalal and advocates Vineet Kumar, Gitesh Chopra, Harshita Gulati, Deepak Kumar Singh, Manish Saroha, Nikhil Beniwal, Mahabir Singh, Navish Bhati and Gaurav Mitra.Additional Standing Counsel (Civil), Mehak Nakra and Advocate Abhishek Khari appeared for the Delhi government. .[Read Order]