Allahabad High Court issues notice in plea to remove graves and mosque from city's Chandrashekar Azad Park

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday issued notice in a plea alleging that the Muslim community has been building artificial graves and mazars in the city's Chandrashekar Azad Park (Jitender Singh v. State of UP)..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Rajendra Prasad issued notice to all the respondents including the Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Uttar Pradesh government. .The Court said that a similar order was passed in 1987 pertaining to illegal encroachment. Questioning why this order has not been implemented, the Court asked,"What are the officers doing?".The matter will be heard next on July 19..The petition was moved by one Jitender Singh, who alleged that some members of the Muslim community are creating artificial graves to convert the park land into a graveyard and that they are trying to convert a building within the area of Chandrashekar Azad Park into a mosque.The plea stated that on February 23, Singh visited the park along with the other petitioner and saw that few persons had created artificial graves and were naming a building as a mosque.."The members of Muslim community in their usual manner of capturing the land for their religious purposes are trying to construct a mosque within the park area and some artificial mazaars (grave yards) have been created at the instance of fundamentalists and the patronage of Waqf Board," read the plea..Further, it was submitted that no part of the Park has ever been used as Waqf property either for the purposes of burying the dead, and that no mosque was ever constructed or had been in existence on the land in any manner..The petitioners also relied on the Arun Kumar v. Nagar Mahapalika judgment, wherein the Allahabad High Court had held that the State government should not have granted a lease on the open space of the Park to Prayag Sangeet Samiti. In that judgment, the Court also said that the sales tax and horticulture departments have no place in the Park area..The follow reliefs have been sought from the Court:a) To direct the respondents to remove all the encroachments raised in the shape of religious constructions as graves, Mazaars or Mosque constructed or created within the area of Chandrasekhar Azad Park.b) To direct the respondents to maintain Amar Shaheed Chandrasekhar Azad Park in accordance with the provisions contained in The Uttar Pradesh Parks, Playgrounds and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Act,1975.c) To direct the Uttar Pradesh government, Nagar Nigam, Development Authority and all the concerned authorities to identify the constructions illegally raised encroaching upon public land, pathways, park land, public road and streets of religious nature or otherwise and remove such illegal and unauthorized constructions.d) To declare that no part of the Amar Shaheed Chandrasekhar Azad Park is a Waqf property.e) To quash the order/notification creating Waqf No. 284/1 and 284/2 within the area of the Amar Shaheed Chandrasekhar Azad Park..Advocate Hari Shankar Jain appeared on behalf of the petitioners and Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal appeared for the State.