New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed the reopening of the mosque inside the Nizamuddin Markaz for devotees to offer Ramzan prayers, rejecting the submissions made by the Centre and the Delhi Police to restrict the number of people praying inside the premises to 20 at a time and only from a list of 200 people submitted beforehand.
Justice Mukta Gupta of the Delhi High Court noted that no such restriction can be placed on the number of devotees offering prayers at the Markaz as nothing of this sort had been put in place for other religious institutions, as per reports.
"It is an open place. They don't have to have a fixed (number of) devotees when no other religious place has…," Justice Gupta noted, adding that expecting a pre-approved list of 200 people who want to visit the mosque for prayers was unjustified as anybody can go to a temple, mosque or church to offer prayers. The court, however, agreed to a list of persons managing the mosque being given to the SHO of the area police station.
According to the Delhi High Court order, the mosque's reopening has been permitted on the condition that it is done so in keeping with the DDMA guidelines for all religious places of worship. The court order revealed that an inspection was to be undertaken on Monday by the SHO, PS Hazrat Nizamuddin and office bearers of the mosque in the presence of Himal Akhtar, Member of Waqf Board and Wajeeh Shafiq, Standing Counsel for Delhi Waqf Board.
It added that the exercise of measuring the area of the mosque where the devotees can offer Namaz five times in the day, will be carried out on Monday itself and as per the guidelines issued by the DDMA, keeping the distances required to be maintained, blocks will be made at the place where the prayer mats can be put for the devotees to offer Namaz.
Advocate Rajat Nair had earlier submitted the proposition to reopen the mosque by limiting entry to just a list of 200 persons but the counsel for Delhi Waqf Board noted that such a task would not be possible. To the Centre's argument submitted by Nair, the court had said, "By virtue of these notifications, which have been issued recently, for religious places, have you curtailed the gathering to 20 at a time? What is the maximum number which you have given for each of the religious places," as per reports of the hearing.
To this, Nair said no such limit had been set for other religious places but that the Nizamuddin Markaz was "another issue".
In addition to this, the court order allowed the SHO to be present inside the Markaz premises throughout the day during the month of Ramzan and noted that CCTV cameras should be installed in consultation with the local SHO by Tuesday (today). Ramzan starts from
April 14.