HC postpones hearing on PIL related to Sunday prayers for a week

The Allahabad High Court today postponed the hearing of a PIL that alleged certain people are not allowing the members of Christian community from attending Sunday prayers in Birmer and Ahladpur villages of Kaushambi district.

The PIL has been postponed for a week by a bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma.

The bench passed the orders on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Roshan Lal and 44 others who are residents of Kaushambi district.

The court, however, made it clear that till the next hearing there should not be any restrictions on attending theSunday prayers and also asked the district administration to take legal action if any wrong or illegal activity is done by the petitioners.

The court also directed the district administration to video graph the Sunday prayers.

The petitioners had alleged that the district administration is not taking any adequate care to protect the people who are having faith in Christianity and they are not being allowed to practice their religion.

According to them, they approached the district administration with their complaint and asked it to stop anti-social elements from troubling them but no action was taken on their plea.

However, the counsel for the state government argued that none of the petitioner is a Christian and therefore it can not be said that Christians are being prevented from attending Sunday prayers.

The district magistrate and superintendent of police of Kaushambi district were present in court as per the July 27 order of the court.

The court, however, exempted them from appearing in the next hearing.