DDMA notification prohibiting gatherings applicable to all religions: Centre report in HC

PTI, Apr 15, 2021, 2:10 PM IST

New Delhi:  The Centre on Thursday submitted a report in the Delhi High Court stating that the DDMA notification prohibiting all kinds of gathering in the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases was applicable to all religions, without specifying whether all places of worship were closed.

Justice Mukta Gupta observed that the status report was silent on whether all the places of worship in the national capital were closed in accordance with the Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s (DDMA) notification.

“You have not stated in the status report whether other religious places are closed or open. We find most of the religious places (in Delhi) are open,” the court said.

Justice Gupta also said that her directions on April 13 were very clear that the court wants to know whether all places of worship were closed as per the DDMA notification.

The observation by the court came after perusing the report during the brief hearing of a plea by the Delhi Waqf Board seeking the opening of the Nizamuddin Markaz where the Tablighi Jamaat congregation was held amid the COVID-19 pandemic and was locked since March 31 last year.

Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the Centre, said Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta has instructions on the query posed by the court on whether all places of worship were closed in Delhi.

He requested the court to list the matter at the end of the list of cases being heard by it during the day.

The court, thereafter, said it will hear the matter after the cases in its list are over.

The court on April 13 had asked the Centre whether the DDMA order prohibiting all kinds of gathering in the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases was being implemented across the board.

It had directed the central government to file an affidavit indicating the manner in which the prohibitory orders of the DDMA issued on April 10 was being followed and whether any kind of social, religious, political or festive congregation or gathering was being permitted in the national capital.

The court had called for the affidavit, after the SG on April 13 said that no gathering can be permitted at the mosque for offering prayers during Ramzan in view of the DDMA order.

He had also said that only the five persons who were already permitted to pray there each day could be allowed inside the Nizamuddin Markaz mosque.

The board, in its plea filed through advocate Wajeeh Shafiq, has contended that even after unlock-1 guidelines permitted religious places outside containment zones to be opened, the Markaz — comprising the Masjid Bangley Wali, Madarsa Kashif-ul-Uloom and attached hostel — continues to be locked up.

It has further contended that even if the premises as part of any criminal investigation or trial, keeping it “under lock as an out of bound area” was a “primitive method” of the enquiry process.

An FIR has been registered under the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, Foreigners Act and various provisions of the penal code in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat event held at the Markaz and the subsequent stay of foreigners there during the COVID-19 lockdown.