Can’t reopen Nizamuddin Markaz, Centre tells HC

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday opposed, before the Delhi High Court fully reopening the Nizamuddin Markaz, where the Tablighi Jamaat congregation was held in March 2020 when the pandemic began. The facility has remained shut since.

The government added that a few people may be allowed to offer prayers on the upcoming religious occasions. Government counsel Rajat Nair told Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri, who was hearing a plea by the Delhi Waqf Board to open the mosque in view of Shab-e-Barat and Ramzan in March and April, that the mosque is a case property and the petitioner board has no locus to seek its reopening.

Nair said that on earlier occasions, a concession was made, allowing few people to offer prayers subject to conditions and there was no objection to a similar arrangement. The counsel appearing for the petitioner said that the mosque, which was closed down by Delhi Police, should be opened as the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has now lifted all restrictions that were imposed due to the pandemic.

The judge listed the case for hearing next week and asked the petitioner to bring the DDMA order on record. FIRs were registered under the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, Foreigners Act and provisions of the penal code in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat event held at the Nizamuddin Markaz and the stay of foreigners there during the first lockdown.

In its application filed through advocate Waqeeh Shafique, the petitioner said that last year during these two occasions - Shab-e-Barat and Ramzan, the high court had permitted prayers in the mosque. It said the current strain of covid, Omicron, was not as severe and fatal as the Delta variant and as the conditions had improved, physical hearings of courts had resumed, schools, clubs, bars and markets had also reopened, so there is no obstacle to reopening of the property.

The application was filed in the Board’s petition which has sought the reopening of the premises and contended that even after unlock-1 guidelines permitted religious places outside containment zones to be opened, the Markaz - comprising the Masjid Bangle Wali, Madarsa Kashif-ul-uloom and attached hostel - stays locked. It stated that even if the premises was part of any criminal investigation or trial, keeping it “under lock as an out of bound area” was a “primitive method” of enquiry. Last year, the court had questioned the Centre as to how long it intended to keep the Nizamuddin Markaz locked. — PTI.