Lawsuit Challenges Unconstitutional Court Order Holding Up City Council Approved Development
Our Bureau
Elgin, IL
Umiya Mataji Sanstha Chicago Midwest, filed a lawsuit on July 14, 2026, against the City of Elgin, Illinois, in the religious group’s quest to construct a Hindu temple.
Plans for the temple, community center, and family homes were preliminarily approved by the Elgin City Council in January 2026. The Umiya Mataji Sanstha already owns the 34-acre parcel at 890 Galt Boulevard (adjacent to Lake Street / US Highway 20) on the far east side of Elgin. The proposed development aims to best situate in the locale between an industrial section to the west and south and residential areas to the north and east.
The approval was pursuant to city zoning regulations and consistent with Elgin’s current Comprehensive Land Use Plan. This preliminary approval was the result of an extended review of the design and layout of the property components.
Elgin is currently unable to enact an ordinance granting final approval of the project, due to a 59-year-old court order that restricts the use of the land for industrial purposes. As a result, the city council has suspended its final approval, while the Umiya Mataji Sanstha seeks relief in court. A court order enabling Elgin to exercise its legislative zoning authority over the land, in the same way it does over all other parcels of land within the city limits, will allow the project to move forward.
The complaint seeks relief from the 1967 court order so that Elgin will be free to grant final approval of the Umiya Mataji Sanstha plans to construct the temple complex on the land they own. The lawsuit is primarily based on the unconstitutionality of the original court order by reason of its violation of the free practice of religion under the First Amendment. That decision also violates the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and other federal and Illinois laws.
The lawsuit also requests monetary damages against any defendants who may undertake to oppose the relief requested with new court action. This is to prohibit legal attempts to thwart the use of the land for its intended and constitutionally protected religious and community purposes.
The estimated 300 residents named in the complaint are labeled as the legal successors to the original plaintiffs in the 1967 court action, due to their current ownership of nearby property.
Additionally, the lawsuit names the City of Elgin as a defendant in this lawsuit, but only to comply with technical legal and jurisdictional requirements applicable to the litigation. Attorneys for the Umiya Mataji Sanstha do not anticipate requesting any damages to be assessed against the city, which has been generally supportive of the project throughout the development review process.
Attorney John Mauck spoke to the religious liberty aspect of the lawsuit, saying, “The Hindu community we represent seeks only to establish what thousands of other Americans already have, a place of worship and townhomes. Americans have long created religious settlements, from monasteries and convents to Quaker villages, Mennonite enclaves, Shaker societies, and Amish fellowships. Even the city of Evanston was founded as a haven where Methodists could live and worship together.”
A statement from the Umiya Mataji Sanstha noted that, “The Umiya Hindu Community deeply appreciates the American heritage of religious freedom, which it embraces as its own, and hopes for a resolution of this matter through the appropriate legal channels.”
The Umiya Mataji Sanstha Chicago Midwest is being represented in United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by attorneys from Mauck & Baker, LLC, a Chicago based firm known for its work defending religious liberty and attorneys from Bazos, Freeman, Schuster & Pope, LLC, legal zoning and land use experts.
