New religious sites need to satisfy distance criteria to get permission: Kerala HC
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Kochi: The Kerala High Court has made the distance of religious places or prayer halls of a similar kind as one of the criteria for granting permission for new religious sites.
The court directed this to the authorities concerned while rejecting a plea that sought a court order to convert a commercial building into a Muslim prayer hall.
The Bench of Justice PV Kunhikrishnan observed that neither the Holy Quran nor the Hadees calls for the mosque to be built in every nook and corner.
Raising concerns over the number of religious places and prayer halls in Kerala, the Court reminded the petitioner about the presence of 36 Muslim prayer halls within 5 km vicinity of the building that the petitioner was seeking to convert to a prayer hall.
"But we are 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," the Bench said.
The court also cited the statistics about the religious places based on the Census 2011 to show the excessiveness of religious places in the state where it has been found that the number of religious structures is 10 times higher than the total number of Villages in Kerala and 3.5 times higher than the number of hospitals in Kerala.
The Court also observed that merely because Article 26(a) of the Constitution gave the right to establish religious institutions, religious places and prayer halls cannot be constructed in every nook and corner of the country.
The petitioner Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangam in Perinthalmanna moved the High Court after the Malappuram District Collector dismissed its application to convert the building, which was earlier granted permission for commercial purposes, to convert into a prayer hall.
The District Collector also held that the approval to change occupancy from commercial to religious purposes will also create communal disharmony in the area where the number of Hindu and Christian families outnumbered the Muslim families.
"God is there everywhere. If the Muslim community want 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. As I observed earlier, in the Modern Era, almost all the citizens have vehicles. Cycles are also available for transportation. Public transportation facility and private transportation facility are also available.", the Court held.
The Court also directed the Chief Secretary of State of Kerala and the State Police Chief urging them to take steps to ensure that there are no religious places functioning in the state without obtaining required permission from the authorities.