The Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled that practicing religion is not dependent on any particular place while dismissing a plea to reconstruct the 200-year-old Takiya Masjid in Ujjain, demolished for Mahakal Lok expansion. The court held that land acquisition does not infringe Articles 25 and 26 rights.
Indore: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has said that the right to practice religion is not linked to any specific place. With this observation, the court dismissed a plea that sought the reconstruction of a nearly 200-year-old mosque in Ujjain, which was demolished as part of the Mahakal Lok complex expansion near the Mahakaleshwar Temple, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva.
The Indore bench of Justices Vivek Rusia and Binod Kumar Dwivedi on October 7 rejected a petition filed by Ujjain resident Mohammad Tayyab and 12 others.
They had challenged the High Court’s earlier order of September 4, which had scrapped their application asking for reconstruction of Takiya Masjid and an inquiry against the local administration.
The petitioners argued that they used to offer namaz at Takiya Masjid, which was built nearly 200 years ago. The mosque had also been declared a Waqf property through an Official Gazette Notification on December 13, 1985.
Their lawyer, advocate Syed Ashhar Ali Warsi, told the court that,
“the action of the respondents amounted to infringement and violation of religious rights as guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.”
He further submitted that once a property is declared Waqf, it remains Waqf forever, and therefore the state government had wrongly acquired the land.
On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Anand Soni, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, opposed the plea and relied on a ruling of the Allahabad High Court.
He argued,
“After acquisition of the property, the right to use that property for the purpose of offering prayers may be lost, but that does not militate against the guarantee contained in Article 25 of the Constitution, which is a right of a person to practice his religion in his house or elsewhere. Therefore, the petitioners have no locus to file a writ petition as well as a writ appeal.”
The bench noted that the mosque and the land were acquired after following the due legal procedure. The land acquisition officer had awarded compensation, which was distributed among several people who were in possession of the property, and only then was the mosque dismantled.
While dismissing the appeal, the High Court also referred to the Allahabad High Court judgment and stated,
“The law of acquisition cannot be held to be invalid as that relates to land and not the individual’s right to profess, practice or propagate religion. As the right to practice religion has no nexus with any particular place, that right cannot be deemed infringed by the acquisition of any particular piece of land which was issued as a mosque.”
Officials said that Takiya Masjid was demolished on January 11 this year to make space for the expansion of the Mahakal Lok parking area near the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain.
They added that the demolition was carried out only after compensation was distributed.
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on Religion
