Thiruvananthapuram

The Kerala High Court on Friday rejected a petition seeking the conversion of a disputed commercial building into a mosque and remarked if more religious places were permitted in Kerala in violation of guidelines, it will be difficult for the citizens as they would have no place to live.

The Court order said: “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," the Court said.

The Court not only rejected the petitioner’s contention that he wants to convert a commercial building into a Muslim place of worship, but it also issued directions to the State Government to close down illegal religious places and prayer halls.

Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan directed Kerala Chief Secretary and the Police Chief to issue necessary orders and circulars directing all the officers concerned to see that no religious places and prayer halls were being run without permission from the competent authorities.

The Court asked the authorities to close down any such places of worship or prayer halls immediately. Chief Secretary was asked directed to pass on relevant orders directing the competent authority as per the Manual of Guidelines to consider each application to start religious places and prayer halls.

The Court remarked: "God is there everywhere. If the Muslim community wants 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."

While noting that the State of Kerala was "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."

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The directions were issued on a petition of a Muslim man who wanted to convert a place he had inherited into a religious place for a locality that had already 36 mosques within a 5 km radius. The petitioner contested that since Muslims are obliged to pray five times a day, a mosque in the vicinity is a must-have.

Referring to Quranic texts that the petitioners’ counsels quoted the court remarked the Holy texts "clearly highlights 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."