Indian court orders relocation of mosque

12/6/2004 3:00:00 PM GMT

Source: The Mille Gazette

An old, beautiful mosque in India known as Sidha Jama Masjid in a village of Midnapur district, West Bengal, is at risk.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) wants to widen the highway claiming that there is increased traffic. They decided to change the place of the mosque and began proceedings to gain the mosque land under Land Acquisition Act.

Muslims in the area perform their five daily prayers in the mosque. They say that a concrete wall was built between the highway and the mosque to save it from the impact of heavy traffic.

Local Muslims insist that the mosque doesn’t hinder the flow of traffic and they resisted NHAI’s actions and raised the issue at the West Bengal Minorities Commission. The commission demanded explanations from NHAI but it ignored the commission’s request. So Muslims decided to file a complaint to the High Court.

The Kolkata High Court ruled on 12 July 2004 that the mosque should be shifted from its location. The verdict was passed to shift the mosque “in public interest” and this marked the first verdict of this nature.

An appeal has been lodged to the High Court’s division bench against the ruling. Muslims fear that if the division bench ignores their appeal, then mosques anywhere might be shifted on any excuse such as laying of railway lines, widening of roads, extension of airports or runways and building of parks.

The Dum Dum airport authorities in Kolkata wanted to gain the land of another old mosque for security reasons and the extension of the airport. The case is still pending in the court for years.

The Kolkata airport had also wanted to acquire a large area where a mosque, madrasah, Eidgah and tomb of a saint and a graveyard are located. If the verdict for the Sidha Jama Masjid is upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court, all these mosques could be removed citing Sidha case as an example.