diff --git a/tools/check-templates b/tools/check-templates
index 7709b29316..7c5f3cc488 100755
--- a/tools/check-templates
+++ b/tools/check-templates
@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 from __future__ import print_function
 from lib.template_parser import validate
+from lib.html_branches import build_id_dict
 import argparse
 import sys
+import logging
 
 from six.moves import filter
 try:
@@ -15,12 +17,20 @@ except ImportError as e:
     print("If you are using Vagrant, you can `vagrant ssh` to enter the Vagrant guest.")
     sys.exit(1)
 
+EXCLUDED_FILES = [
+    ## Test data Files for testing modules in tests
+    "tools/tests/test_template_data",
+]
+
 def check_our_files():
     # type: () -> None
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     parser.add_argument('-m', '--modified',
                         action='store_true', default=False,
                         help='only check modified files')
+    parser.add_argument('--all-dups',
+                        action="store_true", default=False,
+                        help='Run lint tool to detect duplicate ids on ignored files as well')
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
     by_lang = cast(
@@ -28,13 +38,13 @@ def check_our_files():
         lister.list_files(
             modified_only=args.modified,
             ftypes=['handlebars', 'html'],
-            group_by_ftype=True))
+            group_by_ftype=True, exclude=EXCLUDED_FILES))
 
     check_handlebar_templates(by_lang['handlebars'], args.modified)
-    check_html_templates(by_lang['html'], args.modified)
+    check_html_templates(by_lang['html'], args.modified, args.all_dups)
 
-def check_html_templates(templates, modified_only):
-    # type: (Iterable[str], bool) -> None
+def check_html_templates(templates, modified_only, all_dups):
+    # type: (Iterable[str], bool, bool) -> None
     # Our files with .html extensions are usually for Django, but we also
     # have a few static .html files.
     # The file base.html has a bit of funny HTML that we can't parse here yet.
@@ -43,11 +53,50 @@ def check_html_templates(templates, modified_only):
     # The casperjs files use HTML5 (whereas Zulip prefers XHTML), and
     # there are also cases where Casper deliberately uses invalid HTML,
     # so we exclude them from our linter.
+    logging.basicConfig(format='%(levelname)s:%(message)s')
     templates = filter(
-        lambda fn: ('base.html' not in fn) and ('casperjs' not in fn),
+        lambda fn: (('base.html' not in fn) and ('casperjs' not in fn)),
         templates)
     templates = sorted(list(templates))
 
+    template_id_dict = build_id_dict(templates)
+    # TODO: Clean up these cases of duplicate ids in the code
+    IGNORE_IDS = [
+        'api-example-tabs',
+        'errors',
+        'email',
+        'registration',
+        'pw_strength',
+        'id_password',
+        'top_navbar',
+        'id_email',
+        'id_terms',
+        'send_confirm',
+        'register',
+    ]
+    bad_ids_dict = {ids: fns for ids, fns in template_id_dict.items()
+                    if (not ids in IGNORE_IDS) and len(fns) > 1}
+
+    if all_dups:
+        ignorable_ids_dict = {ids: fns for ids, fns in template_id_dict.items()
+                              if ids in IGNORE_IDS and len(fns) > 1}
+
+        for ids, fns in ignorable_ids_dict.items():
+            logging.warning("Duplicate ID(s) detected :Id '" + ids
+                            + "' present at following files:")
+            for fn in fns:
+                print(fn)
+
+    for ids, fns in bad_ids_dict.items():
+        logging.error("Duplicate ID(s) detected :Id '" + ids
+                      + "' present at following files:")
+        for fn in fns:
+            print(fn)
+
+    if list(bad_ids_dict.keys()):
+        print('Exiting--please clean up all duplicates before running this again.')
+        sys.exit(1)
+
     if not modified_only:
         assert len(templates) >= 10 # sanity check that we are actually doing work
     for fn in templates:
diff --git a/tools/lib/html_branches.py b/tools/lib/html_branches.py
index 313d6021a8..528a294dc9 100644
--- a/tools/lib/html_branches.py
+++ b/tools/lib/html_branches.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 from typing import Optional
 
 import re
+from collections import defaultdict
 
 from .template_parser import (
     tokenize,
@@ -109,11 +110,38 @@ def get_tag_info(token):
         m = re.search(regex, s)
         if m:
             for g in m.groups():
-                lst += g.split()
+                lst += split_for_id_and_class(g)
 
     return TagInfo(tag=tag, classes=classes, ids=ids, token=token)
 
 
+def split_for_id_and_class(element):
+    # type: (str) -> List[str]
+    # Here we split a given string which is expected to contain id or class
+    # attributes from HTML tags. This also takes care of template variables
+    # in string during splitting process. For eg. 'red black {{ a|b|c }}'
+    # is split as ['red', 'black', '{{ a|b|c }}']
+    outside_braces = True # type: bool
+    lst = []
+    s = ''
+
+    for ch in element:
+        if ch == '{':
+            outside_braces = False
+        if ch == '}':
+            outside_braces = True
+        if ch == ' ' and outside_braces:
+            if not s == '':
+                lst.append(s)
+            s = ''
+        else:
+            s += ch
+    if not s == '':
+        lst.append(s)
+
+    return lst
+
+
 def html_branches(text, fn=None):
     # type: (str, str) -> List[HtmlTreeBranch]
 
@@ -163,3 +191,21 @@ def html_tag_tree(text):
             stack.pop()
 
     return top_level
+
+
+def build_id_dict(templates):
+    # type: (List[str]) -> (Dict[str,List[str]])
+
+    template_id_dict = defaultdict(list) # type: (Dict[str,List[str]])
+
+    for fn in templates:
+        text = open(fn).read()
+        list_tags = tokenize(text)
+
+        for tag in list_tags:
+            info = get_tag_info(tag)
+
+            for ids in info.ids:
+                template_id_dict[ids].append("Line " + str(info.token.line) + ":" + fn)
+
+    return template_id_dict
diff --git a/tools/tests/test_html_branches.py b/tools/tests/test_html_branches.py
index 7b68672f1e..af0765c909 100644
--- a/tools/tests/test_html_branches.py
+++ b/tools/tests/test_html_branches.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 import unittest
+import os
 
 import tools.lib.template_parser
 
@@ -9,6 +10,8 @@ from tools.lib.html_branches import (
     get_tag_info,
     html_branches,
     html_tag_tree,
+    build_id_dict,
+    split_for_id_and_class,
 )
 
 
@@ -100,3 +103,37 @@ class TestHtmlBranches(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(branches[0].staircase_text(), '\n    html\n        head\n            title\n')
         self.assertEqual(branches[1].staircase_text(), '\n    html\n        body\n            p\n                br\n')
         self.assertEqual(branches[2].staircase_text(), '\n    html\n        body\n            p\n')
+
+    def test_build_id_dict(self):
+        # type: () -> None
+        TEST_TEMPLATES_DIR = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), "test_template_data")
+        templates = ["test_template1.html", "test_template2.html"]
+        templates = [os.path.join(TEST_TEMPLATES_DIR, fn) for fn in templates]
+
+        template_id_dict = build_id_dict(templates)
+
+        self.assertEqual(list(template_id_dict.keys()), ['hello_{{ message }}', 'intro', 'below_navbar'])
+        self.assertEqual(template_id_dict['hello_{{ message }}'], [
+                         'Line 12:/srv/zulip/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template1.html',
+                         'Line 12:/srv/zulip/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template2.html'])
+        self.assertEqual(template_id_dict['intro'], [
+                         'Line 10:/srv/zulip/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template1.html',
+                         'Line 11:/srv/zulip/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template1.html',
+                         'Line 11:/srv/zulip/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template2.html'])
+        self.assertEqual(template_id_dict['below_navbar'], ['Line 10:/srv/zulip/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template2.html'])
+
+    def test_split_for_id_and_class(self):
+        # type: () -> None
+        id1 = "{{ red|blue }}"
+        id2 = "search_box_{{ page }}"
+
+        class1 = "chat_box message"
+        class2 = "stream_{{ topic }}"
+        class3 = "foo {{ a|b|c }} bar"
+
+        self.assertEqual(split_for_id_and_class(id1), ['{{ red|blue }}'])
+        self.assertEqual(split_for_id_and_class(id2), ['search_box_{{ page }}'])
+
+        self.assertEqual(split_for_id_and_class(class1), ['chat_box', 'message'])
+        self.assertEqual(split_for_id_and_class(class2), ['stream_{{ topic }}'])
+        self.assertEqual(split_for_id_and_class(class3), ['foo', '{{ a|b|c }}', 'bar'])
diff --git a/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template1.html b/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template1.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f59d9cd34a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template1.html
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+<!-- test -->
+      <!DOCTYPE html>
+      <html>
+      <head>
+          <title>Test</title>
+          <meta charset="utf-8" />
+          <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
+      </head>
+      <body>
+        <div id="intro">
+          <p id="intro">
+            <span id="hello_{{ message }}">Hello World!!</span>
+            This is a test file for checking correct working of duplicate id detection module.
+          </p>
+        </div>
+      </body>
+      </html>
diff --git a/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template2.html b/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template2.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d47719477e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/tests/test_template_data/test_template2.html
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+<!-- test -->
+      <!DOCTYPE html>
+      <html>
+      <head>
+          <title>Test</title>
+          <meta charset="utf-8" />
+          <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
+      </head>
+      <body>
+        <div id="below_navbar">
+          <p id="intro">
+            <span id="hello_{{ message }}">Hello World!!</span>
+            This is a test file for checking correct working of duplicate id detection module.
+          </p>
+        </div>
+      </body>
+      </html>