Key Points:
- On Monday, April 12, the Delhi Hight Court observed that there will be no cap on the entry of devotees at Nizamuddin Markaz.
- It was Justice Mukta Gupta who allowed the mosque to remain open for prayers(for a limited period), rejecting the Centre and Delhi Police’s submission that a limit be imposed.
- The Markaz faced criticism in March 2020, after members who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event tested positive for COVID-19.
On Monday, April 12, the Delhi Hight Court, while listening to the reopening of the Mosque case observed that there will be no cap on the entry of devotees at Nizamuddin Markaz, also known as Banglewali Masjid, when other religious places have no such sanctions.
The High Court if Delhi has asked the centre and the Delhi police to reopen the Masjid Bangley Wali for prayers during Ramzan, in accordance with Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) guidelines, reported The Indian Express.
It was Justice Mukta Gupta who was heading the case and allowed the mosque to remain open for prayers, rejecting the Centre and Delhi Police’s submission that a limit be imposed.
After the Centre and the Delhi Police requested for allowing only 20 devotees at a time out of a “police-verified list of 200 persons, the Justice said that the mosque does not need to have a fixed number of devotees when no other religious worshipping places don’t have any limits.
“No other religious place has fixed devotees, how can they have only 20 from a list? It is an open place,” Justice Mukta Gupta observed as the Centre said the Markaz should produce a list of 20 people who would be allowed from the verified list of 200 people.
The order came out when the news of a thousand pilgrims and devotees were and are seeing crowding at the Kumbh Mela in Uttarakhand. The situation has raised questions of negligence as the country has overtaken Brazil in the number of Covid-19 cases.
The Markaz faced criticism in March 2020, after members who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event tested positive for COVID-19.
