On April 15, the court had directed Delhi Police to allow a total of 50 persons to offer prayers five times a day at Masjid Bangley Wali’s first floor during the month of Ramadan in accordance with social distancing norms. (File Photo) The Delhi High Court on Friday granted two weeks to the Centre for filing a reply to a petition by the Delhi Waqf Board for easing restrictions at the Nizamuddin Markaz, including the mosque where public entry was banned in the aftermath of Tablighi Jamaat members testing positive for Covid last March.
“See, from day one, you are not filing any reply on merits in this petition. I don’t want anything. It is your choice. You want to file one or you don’t want to file one. Whatever you want to file, you will be confined to that. On day one, time was sought for filing reply but till date that has not been filed,” said Justice Mukta Gupta.
Advocate Rajat Nair, representing the Centre, submitted before the court that a short reply will be filed and sought one more opportunity to file a reply affidavit. Granting the opportunity, the court listed the case for hearing on September 13.
Delhi Waqf Board, in the petition filed through advocate Wajeeh Shafiq in February, has submitted that Masjid Bangley Wali, Madarsa Kashif-ul-uloom, and the attached hostel situated at Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin are under lock since March 2020. It further said general public is not allowed to enter and offer prayers at the mosque; students are not allowed to continue with their education at Madrasa; and nobody is allowed to stay at the hostel meant for principal clerics and their immediate family members.
“The Delhi Waqf Board has learnt that the local police has prepared a list of only 5-6 persons of the locality who alone can enter the mosque for the purpose of prayers. The local police opens locks at the main entrance, allows them to enter at the time of prayers; after prayers are over, those people come out and immediately thereafter the police lock the main entrance again,” according to the plea.
On April 15, the court had directed Delhi Police to allow a total of 50 persons to offer prayers five times a day at Masjid Bangley Wali’s first floor during the month of Ramadan in accordance with social distancing norms. Justice Gupta had said the Delhi Disaster Management Authority in its April 10 order had not ordered closure of religious places in Delhi.
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