'Unlike temples, mosques don't get chadava'

NEW DELHI: Kapil Sibal told the Supreme Court that mosques survived on financial assistance from waqfs as they do not receive any ' chadava ' (monetary donation from devotees) like temples , which have corpuses of thousands of crores of rupees.

"Waqfs are endowments to Allah. Once a waqf, always a waqf. It is these waqfs from whose income mosques are maintained. The state being secular cannot give financial assistance for maintenance of private properties like waqfs which help maintain various institutions like mosques, burial grounds etc.," he said.

Chief Justice B R Gavai said, "I recently visited a dargah and found people making 'chadava'." Sibal said 'chadava' may be a practice in dargahs but not in mosques.