‘Loudspeakers in mosques is not fundamental right’ says Allahabad HC, but Mumbai Police gives permits
Mumbai police on Wednesday said among the 2,400-odd temples, only 24 have obtained permission to use loudspeakers, while 950 out of the 1,140 mosques have received the approval from authorities.
Dismissing a petition seeking permission for the use of loudspeakers for azaan at a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun, the Allahabad high court has observed that the law has now been settled that the use of loudspeakers at mosques is not a fundamental right.
“The law has now been settled that the use of loudspeakers from mosques is not a fundamental right. Even otherwise, a cogent reason has been assigned in the impugned order. Accordingly, we find that the present petition is patently misconceived, hence the same is dismissed,” said a bench of Justices Vivek Kumar Birla and Vikas Budhwar observed.
Irfan of Budaun district had filed a petition praying that the court quash the rejection order dated December 3, 2021, by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Bisauli tehsil, through which he was denied permission to use a loudspeaker/mike from Noori Masjid at the time of azan.
Sachin Kumar Sharma, the petitioner’s lawyer, argued that the magistrate’s order violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner to use a loudspeaker in a mosque.
However, despite this opposing judgement by the court, Mumbai police on Wednesday said among the 2,400-odd temples, only 24 have obtained permission to use loudspeakers, while 950 out of the 1,140 mosques have received the approval from authorities to use the device.
As per statistics available with the Mumbai police, only 1 per cent of the temples in the metropolis have obtained permission to use loudspeakers in their premises, an official said.
However, figures on use of the device by other holy places like churches, gurdwaras, Buddha viharas and synagogues are still being collected by the police and managements of these places of worship will be asked to take permission for installing loudspeakers, he said.
Pertinently, this is for the first time that thousands of mosques in Mumbai have applied to the police for permission to use loudspeakers for reciting Azaan. The applications started coming in the past two weeks, after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray raked up the issue and called upon the state government to pull down loudspeakers from atop the mosques.
