The Allahabad High Court has issued contempt notices to Bareilly District Magistrate Avinash Singh and Senior Superintendent of Police Anurag Arya for allegedly preventing members of the Muslim community from offering namaz inside a vacant house in Mohammadganj village, The Times of India reported on Tuesday.
On Thursday, a bench of Justices Atul Shreedharan and Siddharth Nandan initiated proceedings against the officials under the 1971 Contempt of Courts Act. It also stayed coercive action against petitioner Tarik Khan.
The court has sought responses from the district magistrate and the police officer on March 11, when it will next hear the matter.
The dispute relates to an incident on January 16, when a group of Muslims were stopped while offering prayers inside a vacant house owned by a woman, Reshma Khan. Several Muslim men were detained and four persons had been arrested for allegedly disturbing public order by gathering there, and were later released.
Reshma Khan said that she had permitted the gathering and that the prayers had been held within the premises.
The petitioners had approached the High Court, citing its January 27 ruling in a separate matter that no permission is needed for holding a religious prayer meeting on private property in Uttar Pradesh as long as the activity was within its premises.
The ruling had come on a plea by Christian organisations who had sought permission to conduct prayer meetings in private premises.
The court had said that if a gathering has to “spill over the public road or public property”, the police must be informed and, if needed, permissions need to be secured.
Tarik Khan, the petitioner in the case pertaining to the gathering in Mohammadganj, said that the January 27 order had clarified that prayers could be offered within a private property, The Times of India reported.
“We too are a minority, so the same rule should apply to us,” he said. “So far, we have been protected by the court’s stay, and that is why we resumed our prayers from the house.”
Tensions in Mohammadganj
Meanwhile, tensions have risen in Mohammadganj, where some Hindu residents objected to Friday prayers having resumed in the house, The Times of India reported.
Five families painted “house for sale” on the walls of their homes. They claimed that the house would eventually be converted into permanent places of worship, the newspaper reported.
They asked Chief Minister Adityanath to intervene in the matter.
The senior superintendent of police was quoted as saying that the situation was under control and that no coercive action had been taken.
“We have never interfered with religious practices as long as they do not violate established norms,” The Times of India quoted him as saying.
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