Case Title: Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangham v. The District Collector, Malappuram & Ors.
The Kerala High Court directed the State Government to close down religious places and prayer halls that were functioning illegally and without permission.
The Court while disallowing a petition to convert a commercial building to a Muslim place of worship remarked, “God is there everywhere. If the Muslim community want to conduct their 'prayers' in the mosque itself, they can go to the nearest mosque instead of constructing a new prayer hall near to their residence” .... and that the State is already "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 brief facts of the case are that a petition was filed in the Court seeking to convert a commercial building to a Muslim place of worship, in an area where there were already 36 Mosques within 5 kilometers radius of the said building. The ground taken was that 'five times prayer' is necessary for a Muslim and thus, a prayer hall within the vicinity was a necessity for every Muslim.
The Court also perused the verses of the Quran referred to by the petitioner society’s counsel and remarked that "The above verses of the Holy Quran clearly highlight the importance of Mosque to the Muslim community. But it is not stated in the above verses of the Holy Quran that Mosque is necessary in every nook and corner". It further remarked that, "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."
In this regard, the Court directed the Chief Secretary of State of Kerala and the State Police Chief to issue necessary orders / circulars directing all the officers concerned to see that there was 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, to close down the same immediately. It also declared that the category change from one category to a religious place would not be necessary unless there are sufficient reasons for the same. It was further added that if any building is used for religious purposes when the building is constructed for some other purpose, stringent action ought to be taken by the Police authorities and the State. The order of the District Collector was thus confirmed, and the aforementioned direction was also issued in this regard.