New Delhi:The Centre told the Delhi High Court on Monday that the Nizamuddin Markaz mosque can be made operational for devotees to offer prayers during the month of Ramzan which is expected to begin from April 14.
The submission was made before Justice Mukta Gupta by the central government during the hearing of a plea by the Waqf Board seeking opening of the Nizamuddin Markaz where the Tablighi Jamaat congregation was held amid the COVID-19 pandemic and was locked since March 31 last year.
On March 24, the Centre had said that 50 persons chosen by the Waqf board can be allowed to pray at the mosque during the 'shab-e-barat' holiday.
Read:|50 people can offer prayers at Nizamuddin Markaz mosque during festival, Centre tells HC
Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the Centre, told the court that the names of the office bearers and other staff who will be running, managing and dealing with the day-to-day operational issues of the mosque be given to the Station House Officer (SHO) concerned and these persons would be permitted to be present there throughout the day during the holy month.
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta and Nair also told the court that a joint inspection would be carried out on Monday itself by the SHO of police station Hazrat Nizamuddin and the office bearers of the mosque.
They said the inspection would be carried out in the presence of advocate Wajeeh Shafiq, the lawyer for the Waqf board, and a member of the Board -- Himal Akhtar.
"The exercise of measuring the area of the mosque where the devotees can offer namaz five times in the day, will be carried out today itself and as per the guidelines issued by the DDMA, keeping the distances required to be maintained, blocks will be made at the place where the prayer mats can be put for the devotees to offer namaz," they told the court.