Erect Barricades At Least 10 Meters Prior To 130 Yr Old Mosque's Entrance To Ensure There Is No Obstruction For Devotees: Delhi HC To Police [Read Order]

The Bench of Justice Pratibha Singh gave this direction while hearing the plea of Secretary of the 'Basant Nagar Mosque' located on Rao Tula Ram Marg, Delhi Cantonment, New Delhi.

The Case of the Petitioner

The case of the Petitioner was that the Mosque in question is more than 130 years old and is located within the limits of village Basant Nagar. His grievance was that in the month of November, 2019, barricades were placed in front of the Mosque's entrance and three constables were posted to perform picketing duty, which was causing inconvenience to the devotees, to access the gate of the Mosque.

Accordingly, the prayer in the petition was that the Delhi Police ought to remove the barricades from its present place and move it a few meters ahead or behind the gate of the Mosque.

Submissions before the Court

The Waqf Board filed its response to the petition, and in the affidavit, it stated that the counsel Wajeeh Shafiq himself visited the spot on 17th September, 2020 and found that the police had placed three barricades to slow down the incoming traffic for the purpose of checking.

It was also submitted that at the time of his visit, the barricades were manned by two armed policemen and according to him, the checking starts in the afternoon and continues till midnight and thereafter the barricades are removed, but are placed in front of the gate of the Mosque.

He relied upon the satellite images taken from the Google Earth maps to show the staggered manner in which the barricades are placed.

The Delhi police placed its status report on record. The submission of the Counsel appearing for the police was that the police had placed barricades, but these barricades did not block the entrance to the Mosque.

It was argued that there are two shops which are run by the Mosque Management Committee and the revenue from these shops is used to manage the Mosque. There were some PCR calls on this stretch of Rao Tula Ram Marg, which indicated the incidents of snatching, robberies and accidents.

Further, the police found that the traffic which comes out from Vasant Vihar, going to Gurgaon was exiting Vasant Vihar without any checking, and the Mosque is located in an isolated area. Accordingly, barricades were put up.

He further submitted that a picket has also been put up by the police about 10 meters from the entrance of the Mosque. This was done after a letter was received from the Defence Estate Office, Delhi Circle, Delhi Cantt., for removal of unauthorised construction and encroachment on the defence land, and it was found that the Secretary was in unauthorized occupation of the land of 0.716 acres, and has been commercially exploiting the same.

The police, however, assured the Court that the barricades would not, in any manner, result in creating any obstruction for devotees to perform prayers in the Mosque.

Court's directions

After going through the records, and the photographs which were placed on record, the Court found that there was some variance between the version being given by the police, and the Google Earth images which were placed on record.

Since there was a variance between the two versions being given, and also considering the affidavit of the Delhi Waqf Board and the status report of the police, the following directions were issued:

i. The police shall ensure that the barricades are erected on the road at least 10 meters prior to the entrance of the Mosque or ahead of the entrance of the Mosque,so as to ensure that in front of the Mosque there is no obstruction for the devotees, to enter through the gate of the Mosque;

ii. The administration of the Mosque shall ensure that in the shops being run outside, there is no gathering of a crowd which would create any obstruction to the commuters using the road, which is stated to be the exit from Vasant Vihar towards Gurgaon;

iii. The police shall also ensure that if there is any checking of vehicles which is required, adequate number of constables are posted on the site so as to carry out the checking, either 10 metres before the vehicles enter the mosque or 10 meters after the gate of the Mosque, without impeding the devotees from entering the Mosque.

Insofar as the allegations of any unauthorized construction or encroachment were concerned, the Court did not examine the said issue and the authorities were permitted to take action in accordance with the law.

The Mosque Management was also directed to ensure that there is no unauthorized construction or encroachment in the Mosque area, and the Mosque area is only used by devotees to offer prayers.

Accordingly, the present petition and all pending applications were disposed of.