By Muslim Mirror Network
The Kerala High Court ordered the closure of illegally constructed religious places on Friday, noting that the number of places of worship in the southern state is about 3.5 times that of hospitals.
In his decision, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan used a few passages (Juz 1 Surah 114) from the Holy Quran, which were referred to by a counsel during the case hearing, to point out that it does not indicate that “Mosque is necessary in every nook and corner.”
“These verses of the Holy Quran clearly highlight the importance of mosque to the Muslim community. But, it is not stated in those verses that Mosque is necessary in every nook and corner,” the Court said quoting the verses (Juz 1 Surah 114) mentioned by the counsel.
The order was issued in response to a petition submitted by the Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangam Society to convert a commercial building at Amarambalam Grama Panchayat into a Muslim house of worship in a village near Nilambur in the Malappuram district.
“The Chief Secretary of State of Kerala and the State police chief shall issue necessary orders/circulars directing all the officers concerned to see that there is no illegal functioning of any religious places and prayer halls without obtaining permission from the competent authorities as per the Manual of Guidelines and if any such religious place or prayer hall is functioning without necessary permission, take necessary steps to close down the same forthwith”, the order said.
Furthermore, the court directed the government to issue a separate circular/order prohibiting the conversion of a building to a religious place/prayer hall except in unavoidable circumstances and in the rarest of rare cases, and only after receiving a report from the police and intelligence ascertaining the ground realities of that specific place.
It further asked the Chief Secretary to issue required orders/circulars directing the responsible authority, in accordance with the Manual of Guidelines, to carefully analyse each application to open religious places and prayer halls and to provide approval only in appropriate instances.
It should be explicitly stated in the order/circular that the distance to the nearest similar religious place/prayer hall is one of the criteria considered when examining applications for religious places and prayer halls.
“Because of the peculiar geographical location of Kerala, it is known as ‘God’s own country’. But 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 High Court said.
The court noted that the Society aimed to convert the commercial property into a Muslim place of worship in an area with around 36 mosques within a 5-kilometer radius of this facility and “then why another prayer hall for the petitioner is a million dollar question.”
After the district authorities refused its demand, the petitioner went to court.
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 in every nook and corner of the State, place of worship and prayer halls would be necessary”, the court said while doing a detailed consideration of the matter.
In its order, the court stated that there are enough religious sites and prayer rooms for all communities in the state, citing the 2011 census statistics.
According to the 2011 census, Kerala has 1018 villages, 87 municipalities, and 6 municipal corporations, as well as 1,01,140 houses of worship and 29,565 hospitals.
In Kerala, the number of places of worship is over 3.5 times more than the number of hospitals.
“Therefore, if further religious places and religious prayer halls are allowed in Kerala without any guidelines, there will be no place for the citizens to reside,” the court said.
The court stated that the government and local governments should be cautious in the future when issuing authorization for religious facilities and prayer halls.
Observing that the construction of a commercial building and that of a religious site are completely different, the court stated that in a state like Kerala, a category shift from one category to religious place is not required unless there are compelling reasons for the same.
“If any building is used for religious purposes when the building is constructed for some other purpose, stringent action should be taken by the police authorities and the State,” it said.
“If every Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jews, and Parsis among others starts to construct religious places and prayer halls near his or her residence, the State would face consequences such as communal disharmony,” the court said.
“In this case the Intelligence report and the police report say that if the present conversion of the commercial building to a religious prayer hall is allowed, there is a chance for communal disharmony. It is a sensitive issue,” the court said.
Wherever RSS con not use force, there it uses Justice system to fulfill its dreams ..