Close down all illegal religious places, prayer halls: Kerala HC
KOCHI: The High Court on Friday directed the state government to close down religious places and prayer halls that are functioning illegally and without permission from the competent authority. While rejecting the plea of Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangam, Nilambur, Malappuram seeking permission to change its commercial building to a Muslim place of worship, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan observed that “God is there everywhere. If the Muslim community wants to conduct its ‘prayers’ in the mosque itself, its members can go to the nearest mosque instead of constructing a new prayer hall near to their residence.”
The court noted that there are about 36 mosques within five kilometres radius of this building.
Even then the petitioner wants another place of worship for the reason that ‘five times prayer’ is necessary for a Muslim and therefore, a prayer hall is necessary within the vicinity of every Muslim. “If this is allowed, then places of worship and prayer halls would be necessary in every nook and corner of the state,” said the court.
The court further directed the chief secretary and the state police chief to issue necessary orders directing all officers concerned to see that there is no illegal functioning of any religious places and prayer halls without obtaining permission. If any such religious place or prayer hall is functioning, to take necessary steps should be taken to close down the same forthwith, the court said. The district collector reported that the building was originally constructed for commercial purposes. But inspection of the inner area found it was arranged more for religious purposes.
There are about 3,990 Muslim families, 1,164 Christian families and 3,498 Hindu families residing within the vicinity of the petitioner’s commercial building. The collector also considered the fact that the number of Hindu and Christian families residing in this area is more than the Muslim families residing and therefore if a Muslim prayer hall is approved after changing the occupancy from commercial to religious purposes, there will be communal violence.
HC OBSERVATION
The court observed it is not stated in the Holy Quran that mosque is to be situated adjacent to the house of every Muslim. Distance is not the criteria, but reaching the mosque is important.
The court also quoted a portion of a Malayalam song written by the late Vayala Ramavarma that “Man created religions, Religions created God..” “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,” said Justice P V Kunhikrishnan.
Places of worship 3.5 times that of hospitals
The order stated that the number of places of worship in Kerala is almost 3.5 times higher than the number of hospitals in the state. Therefore, if further religious places and religious prayer halls are allowed without any guidelines, there will be no place for the citizens to reside.