THE Allahabad High Court on Tuesday refused to direct the Uttar Pradesh Government to open Mosque/Idgah for offering Jamaat/Namaz of Eid-Ul-Fitr and Dova in Congregation for one hour (Time 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM) and future Juma Namaz till June 2020.
A division bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Siddhartha Varma, however, asked the petitioner Shahid Ali Siddiqui to first approach to the State first for redressal of his grievance.
“Ongoing through the averments contained in the letter petition, it does not appear that the petitioner before approaching this Court made any demand to the State for redressal of the grievance. It is well settled that a party seeking writ in the nature of mandamus must first approach to the Authority competent for redressal of the grievance”, the court said.
The court also granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the court again after denial of the relief claimed or any unusual delay in considering the same by the State Government.
The Central Government on May 17 while extending the nationwide lockdown had also extended the prohibition on the access to religious places/places of worship for the public and large congregations.
Read the Order here:
[pdfviewer]http://theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Allahabad-HC-Namaz.pdf[/pdfviewer]
