On Friday, the Kerala High Court refused to grant permission to build a new mosque in a locality in Kerala which already had many mosques. The Court said that the state already has many religious places where the faithful can worship and that the ratio of religious structures to the population in the state is very high.
According to the reports, the Court was hearing the case filed by Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangam which sought to change a commercial building to a Muslim place of worship. The petition claimed that this would enable Muslims in the vicinity to access a mosque to offer prayers five times a day.
However, the District Collector evaluated the request and refused it based on reports from the District Police Chief, who stated that there are around 36 mosques within a 5-kilometre radius of the petitioner’s current commercial structure.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan while hearing the case stated that the state of Kerala is known as ‘God’s own country’ and that it is full of religious places. “We are exhausted with religious places and prayer halls and we are not in a position to allow any new religious places and prayer halls except in the rarest of rare cases”, the judgement read.
The Justice also referred to the Quran and said that it was nowhere written in the book that there must be a Mosque for Muslim community in every nook and corner of the locality. Court further referred to the verses Juz 10 Surah 18 and Juz 1 Surah 114 of the Holy Quran and to Clause 1064 of Riyadussaliheen.
“The above verses of the Holy Quran, clearly highlight the importance of the Mosque to the Muslim community. But it is not stated in the above verses of the Holy Quran that Mosque is necessary in every nook and corner. It is not stated in the Hadees or in the Holy Quran that the mosque is to be situated adjacent to the house of every Muslim community member. Distance is not the criteria, but reaching the mosque is important,” the Court observed.
“If every devotee of Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jews, Parsis, etc. start to construct religious places and prayer halls near their residence, the State will face serious consequence including communal disharmony”, the Court stated adding that as per the police report, conversion of commercial building to a religious prayer hall might lead to communal disharmony in the area.
In the instant case, because 36 mosques already existed in the vicinity in question, the Court determined there was no need for yet another mosque in that area because Muslims could travel to other nearby mosques, especially given that most citizens have access to a vehicle or public transportation.
“It is true that Article 26(a) of the Constitution of India states that subject to the public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes. That does not mean that they can construct religious places in every nook and corner of the country. Kerala is a very small State”, the Court observed.
Justice Kunhikrishnan also cited a movie song by late famous poet Late Vayalar Ramavarma, which refers of how man created religions, religions created God, and religions and God split the globe and humanity.
“Let the citizens love each other and follow their religious practices according to their religious beliefs. They can do it from their house and if their religion insists that, it should be done together in a prayer hall. They can travel to the nearest mosque instead of constructing another mosque or prayer hall in their neighbourhood….If the poet is alive today, I am sure that the poet will rewrite the second line of the above song as “religion is the creator of religious places”, instead of God,” the judgment stated.
The Court reviewed the ‘The Manual of guidelines to prevent and regulate community disruption and to encourage communal harmony’ issued by the State via a Government Order and determined that approval from district authorities is required even for a change of occupation.
“Therefore, it is declared that, even for a change of occupancy of a building to a religious place, the Manual of Guidelines is applicable and the approval from the competent authority as per the Manual of Guidelines is necessary”, the Court held in its judgment.
The Court further went on to say that the presence of other religious places or prayer halls nearby is a sufficient reason to deny a request to convert the category of a structure to a religious place and even to develop a new religious prayer hall. In this case, the Court saw no basis to overturn the State authorities’ judgement and dismissed the petition.
