LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court asked the locus standi (right to sue) of the petitioners to file the plea challenging the order of the local administration restraining the mela committee from organising the annual urs at the Dargah of Syed Salar Masood Ghazi in Bahraich.
The division bench, comprising Justice AR Masoodi and Justice AK Srivastava (I) granted time to the petitioners by posting the matter on May 19 as the next date of hearing.
A bench of passed the order on the writ petition filed by Waqf No. 19, Dargah Sharif, Bahraich.
Taking up the petition, the Bench asked the petitioners to prove their right to sue in the present case and said it would hear the plea only on merit.
Appearing on behalf of petitioners, advocate LP Mishra said that if Kumbh could be organised, why ‘urs’ was not being allowed by the authorities concerned.
Mishra called it a discrimination based on religion by the state authorities in violation of the right to profess religion under Article 25 of the Constitution of India.
However, the Bench said that it was the right of the court to be satisfied if the petition was maintainable or not.
“Without being satisfied with an aspect, we will not proceed further,” the Bench said.
Advocate Mishra urged the court to post the matter for hearing on Saturday, assuring that he would place the necessary documents before the court.
The Bench also refused to fix the matter on Saturday as it was a holiday.
The Court asked Mishra to move a proper application before the Chief Justice, as only he could constitute a special Bench on holidays.
Meanwhile, as per the local sources, the shrine of Syed Salar Masood Ghazi, popularly known as Ghazi Mia, would miss the Urs for the second time in the last 500 years.
It is a month-long annual affair which is organised from May 15 to June 15.
However, this year, the Bahraich district administration decided not to hold it in the wake of the Phalagam terror attack, after which the intelligence inputs hinted at a threat to the law and order situation and potential communal conflagration.
The Mela organising committee moved Allahabad High Court against the decision of the district administration.
It may be recalled that a similar fair, organised annually on the Mazar of Sayyad Salar Masood Ghazi, was cancelled by the district police administration stating that no event could be allowed in memory of an invader.