MOHD GULAM RASOOL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) NO aspect of the issues raised in the present petition brought to the High Court as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is different from an earlier petitioner filed by the same petitioners, Md. Gulam Rasool and Md. Shafique. The earlier petition being C.W.J.C. No. 7581/98 was also brought as a PIL. On the earlier petition, notice had been issued. Thus, whatever order was passed by the High Court rested on what had been contended in the writ petition. The observation of the Court in its order dated 15th September, 1998 was to the effect that, should the petitioners be advised, they may approach the District administration. Apparently, a situation was conveyed to the Court as if the District administration was lacking in its effort to control a law and order situation. Thus, the Court observed that it hoped and trusted that the District administration considering the gravity of the situation, as alleged, would take immediate steps for doing the needful in maintaining law and order. The petition was consigned accordingly.

(2.) THE same petitioners Messrs Gulam Rasool and Md. Shafique have come to the High Court again and filed the present writ petition as a PIL. Fortunately, in the present writ petition, the Court has the benefit of a reply by the District Magistrate, Madhubani. In the circumstances, the perspective is clearer in the present writ petition than it was in the earlier petition in which the Court did not have the version of the State. For reasons best known to the petitioners, they have not replied to the affidavit of the District Magistrate. Thus, the pleadings rest on what the two petitioners contend and what the District Magistrate, Madhubani, gives the Court as his assessment of the situation and the ground reality.

(3.) THE story being indicated to the High Court in the present second writ petition is that the petitioners have a following in their community to establish a mosque and that the District administration is preventing them from constructing or establishing a mosque.