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Court clears mosque shift

Court clears mosque shift

Author: Our Legal Reporter
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: July 6, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040706/asp/bengal/story_3459502.asp

The state and the Union civil aviation ministry may have failed to relocate a mosque at Dum Dum airport to create space for a second runway but the high court today asked the Waqf Board to shift a mosque on National Highway 6 to widen the road.

"If for the purpose of development a place of worship has to be shifted, then let it be done," Justice Barin Ghosh told representatives of Hooghly district's Waqf Board. "This should be done in the greater interest of the people."

The board had moved the high court after the National Highway Authority of India issued a notice to the mosque in Dankuni, about 30 km from the city, asking them to demolish it as it came in the way of the Golden Quadrilateral project. The board pleaded that the authority had no power to demolish a mosque for a road.

But the court said: "If you think that the court will prevent the demolition by the highway authority, then you are wrong in your thinking. The court will not prevent the NHAI from doing its job."

The judge then asked the Waqf Board representative to hold talks with the leaders of the community so that a place could be found for the relocation of the mosque. "Any place of worship can be shifted to any other place for greater interest of the society. Development gets top priority," the judge said. He asked the petitioners to request some rich person to donate three decimals of land near the mosque's original location and to shift it there.

The court order assumes significance as several roads in Calcutta like Biren Shasmal Road, CR Avenue, AJC Bose Road and Syed Amir Ali Avenue cannot be expanded because of people's resistance to demolition of places of worship.
 


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