Allahabad High Court has allowed district administrations to prevent religious gatherings in private properties if there is an apprehension of a law-and-
order issue.
The order assumes significance in the backdrop of a fortnight-old observation of the high court that the district magistrate and superintendent of police should resign if they are not capable of maintaining law and order during a religious event.
The bench of Justices Saral Srivastava and Garima Prasad passed the order on Wednesday in response to a petition filed by Tariq Khan of Bareilly district. The district administration had prevented Khan from organising an event within the boundaries of his building.
Additional advocate-general Anup Trivedi told the court that 52 to 62 people had assembled on Khan’s campus to offer namaz during the month of Ramzan. This was a threat to the security and harmony of the area, he said.
Khan’s counsel, Rajesh Kumar Gautam, assured the court that the petitioner will not invite so many people for namaz in the future.
The court asked the state administration to withdraw the notices served to people in similar cases.
The bench of Justices Siddharth Nandan and Atul Sridharan had on March 14 quashed the order of the Sambhal administration to limit the number of people for namaz in mosques and asked the district magistrate and the superintendent of police to resign or seek transfer if they were incapable of maintaining law and order.
This order was passed in response to a petition by Munazeer Khan of Sambhal, who had sought protection of the court against the Sambhal administration, which had stated last year that the number of those who visit masjids to offer namaz would be monitored and a ceiling would be fixed.
“It is the duty of the state to ensure that any community gathers and peacefully practises their religion at a community centre,” the high court had observed.
Munazeer had told the court that the police visited Ghosiya Masjid in Hayatnagar, Sambhal, in February 2025 and said that only 20 people could visit and offer namaz there in a day, and that a group of 5-6 persons could offer namaz at a time in the shrine.
Recently, Chhattisgarh High Court held that there was no need to obtain permission from any authority to organise a religious event in a private area. The order was in response to two Hindus who had held a Christian prayer meeting on their campus.