Delhi High Court Pulls Up Centre For Its Failure To File Response On Plea Seeking Reopening Of Nizamuddin Markaz

The Delhi High Court on Friday granted a further two weeks' time to the Centre to respond to a petition by the Delhi Waqf Board seeking to ease restrictions at the Nizamuddin Markaz, which has been locked since March 31 last year.Pulling up the Centre for its failure to file a response from "day one", the Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta said thus:"You want to file a response or you don't want to file one? On day one, time was sought for filing reply but nothing has been filed till date."The Centre submitted before the court that it would be filing a short reply and therefore, sought one more opportunity to file a reply affidavit. Thus, the court listed the case for further hearing on September 13.Public entry was banned at the Nizamuddin Markaz in the aftermath of Tablighi Jamaat members testing positive for Covid last March.The petition moved by the Delhi Waqf Board in February states that the central government vide its guidelines for the phased reopening of public places and facilities after the Covid-19 lockdown, known as "Guidelines for Unlock 1" dated May 30, 2020, allowed for the reopening of a list of religious places outside containment zones from Jun 8, 2020, yet the Hazrat Nizamuddin area was kept outside the list, as it was said to be in a containment zone. However, even after it was removed from the list of containment zones in Sep 2020, the Waqf property was still locked.It was submitted that the entire premise of the Markaz was locked by the local police after the registration of an FIR under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 against a congregation at the Markaz.The Markaz which was locked on the premise of getting the area sanitized, has not remained shut since Mar 31, 2020, the plea elaborated.The petitioner states that even if the premises is involved in any criminal investigation/trial, "instead of following a primitive method of keeping the entire premises under lock as an 'out of bound area' a modern or scientific method" should be adopted by the Delhi Police and government to ensure minimum interference with religious rights.The board further said that its representations to the government and police in this regard were unanswered and therefore it was moving this petition, praying for a reassessment of the need for keeping the premises locked, adoption of scientific or advanced methods to secure the condition of interiors of the premises for investigation/ trial purposes, and a direction to the police and government to ensure minimum interference with the operation of the Markaz for religious purposes.Delhi Waqf Board was represented by Sr. Adv. Ramesh Gupta and Standing Counsel for Delhi Waqf Board, Adv. Wajeeh Shafiq.

Delhi High Court Pulls Up Centre For Its Failure To File Response On Plea Seeking Reopening Of Nizamuddin Markaz

Sparsh Upadhyay

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