PIL in court to allow women into Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
NEWDELHI: A plea has been filed in the Delhi high court challenging the ban on entry to women into the sanctum sanctorum of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah.
The plea filed by three law students, through advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, have sought directions to the Centre, Delhi government, police and the trust managing the shrine, to frame guidelines for ensuring the entry of women into the dargah and declare the bar on entry of women as “unconstitutional”.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which is likely to come up for hearing next week, alleged that the a notice has been put up outside the ‘dargah’ -- a shrine built over the grave of a religious figure -- clearly stating in English and Hindi that women are not allowed inside.
The petition claimed that several representations were made to the concerned authorities. However, there was no response to the letters and hence they moved the high court challenging this move.
The plea alleged that when the Supreme Court has allowed women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala, women in the heart of the national capital were being discriminated against by being prohibited from entering the dargah.
“Nizamuddin Dargah by its very nature is a public place and prohibition of entry of anyone in a public place on the basis of gender is contrary to the framework of the Constitution of India,” it said. It also said various other shrines like Ajmer Sharif Dargah and Haji Ali Dargah did not prohibit entry of women.