Delhi HC directs police to erect barricades at least 10 meters away from 130-year-old mosque entrance
Oct 22, 2020
New Delhi [India], October 22 : The Delhi High Court has directed city police to ensure that barricades are erected on the road at least 10 meters prior to the entrance of the 130-year-old mosque on Rao Tula Ram Marg in Delhi cantonment area, observing that there should not obstruction for the devotees to enter through the gate of the mosque.
"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," the court said in its order on Tuesday.
A single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh also directed the mosque management 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.
Besides this, the bench also directed that the administration of the mosque shall ensure that in the shops run outside, there is no gathering of a crowd that would create any obstruction to the commuters using the road, which is the exit from Vasant Vihar towards Gurgaon.
The court also asked the Delhi Police to 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.
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by the Mohd Jafar, Secretary of the Basant Nagar mosque located on Rao Tula Ram Marg, Delhi Cantonment. Advocate Janak Raj Rana, appearing for Jafar, submitted 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 is causing inconvenience to the devotees, to access the gate of the mosque.
The court relied on the photographs, placed on record and said that there seems to be some variance between the version being given by the police, and the Google Earth images which have been placed on record.
"Even going by the Google Earth images, the barricades have been placed in a zig-zag or staggered manner so as to ensure that each and every vehicle entering the Mosque can be checked. However, the photographs placed by the police show that the barricades are beyond the entrance of the Mosque," the bench observed.
