The Allahabad High Court reacted sharply to an order from the Uttar Pradesh government that capped number of people offering prayers at a mosque in Sambhal district. Rejecting the order, the Court said the Superintendent of Police and Collector should either resign or seek transfer if they feel they are not competent enough to enforce rule of law.

 

The bench emphasized the state’s duty to ensure that every community can worship peacefully in their designated places without needing state permission, especially if the property is private.

A bench of justices Atul Sreedharan and Siddharth Nandan observed, “It is duty of the State to ensure that every community is able to offer worship peacefully in the designated place of worship and if it is a private property as already been held by the court earlier to perform worship without any permission from the State.”

This statement came during the hearing of a petition by Munazir Khan from Sambhal, who claimed he was prevented from conducting prayers during Ramzan at Gata No. 291, where the mosque allegedly exists.

“This court has already settled that it is only where prayers or religious functions have to be held on public land or spill over the public property that the involvement of the state is essential and permission must be sought,” the court said in its order dated February 27.

 

Disputing the ownership of Gata No.291, the state claimed that it is recorded under the names Mohan Singh and Bhooraj Singh, sons of Sukhi Singh, in revenue records and gave permission to only 20 worshippers to pray.

The petitioner argued that a larger number of people would attend prayers during Ramzan.

The state’s counsel justified the restriction on the number of worshippers due to a perceived law and order threat.

After hearing counsels for the parties, the court said, “It is the duty of the State to ensure that the rule of law prevails under every circumstance. If the local authorities i.e., Superintendent of Police and Collector feel that the law and order situation could arise because of which they want to limit the number of worshippers within the premises, they should either resign from their post or seek transfer outside Sambhal.”

The matter will be next heard on March 16.