"The verses of the Holy Quran highlight the importance of mosques to the Muslim community. But, it is not stated in those verses that Mosque is necessary for every nook and corner," the Court said quoting the verses (Juz 1 Surah 114) mentioned by the council.
zee news Aug 27, 2022,
The Kerala High Court on Friday ordered the state government to shut down all religious places and prayer halls running without permission,
justice PV Kunhikrishnan also directed the state chief secretary to issue orders to ensure that new religious places and prayer halls are allowed to be set up only in appropriate cases. The court issued the order while turning down a petition to convert a commercial building into a mosque.
Justice Kunhikrishnan noted that there already were 36 mosques within a radius of five kilometres of the building that the petitioners wanted to convert to a place of worship. The judge held that Kerala already has many religious places and their ratio to population was very high.
Citing a study on religious structures in Kerala, the judge also noted that their number was 10 times the number of villages in the state and 3.5 times that of hospitals, Aug 26, 2022, The Scroll
The Kerala High Court on Friday directed to close down the places of worship and prayer halls operating illegally in the state. The court also directed that the Chief Secretary and the Chief of Police should take necessary steps in this regard.
The court issued the order while disposing of a plea filed by the Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangam seeking to convert a commercial building to a Muslim place of worship. The court dismissed the petition.
The court further directed the Chief Secretary to issue necessary orders/circulars directing the competent authority as per the Manual of Guidelines to consider each application to start religious places and prayer halls strictly and the approval can be granted only in appropriate cases. In the order/circ
should be clearly mentioned that the distance to the nearest similar religious place /prayer hall is one of the criteria while considering the application for religious places and prayer halls, it said. source:keralakaumudi
