Appropriate bench in SC to hear plea against ‘un-Islamic’ flags

The Supreme Court on Monday said a plea seeking a ban on hoisting of green flags with crescent and star at buildings and religious places would be heard by an “appropriate bench”.

The petition came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices N V Ramana and S Abdul Nazeer, which said the matter has to be listed before a bench which has been assigned to hear public interest litigation (PILs).

“We do not have the roster of PILs,” Justice Ramana told the counsel appearing for the petitioner. "List before an appropriate bench," the bench said in its order.

Syed Waseem Rizvi, the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Board of Waqfs, has claimed in his plea that during his visit to Mumbai and other places in India, he saw flags on several buildings and religious structures which were allegedly a cause of tension between Hindu and Muslim communities.

The plea has sought a ban on hoisting of green flags with crescent and star terming it “un-Islamic” and claiming that it resembled the flag of the Pakistan Muslim League, which belongs to the “enemy country”.

It has claimed that crescent star green flags owed its origin to the erstwhile political party, Muslim League, founded by Nawaz Waqar Ul-Malik and Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1906. But currently, it was being used by Indian Muslims who were treating it as an Islamic flag.

Such flags are being hoisted in Muslim-dominated areas with "utmost impunity", the plea has said, claiming that the crescent and star in a green backdrop have never been part of any Islamic practice and does not have any role or significance in Islam.

Maintaining that "our country remains vulnerable to the hidden attacks by the Pakistani intelligence agencies through their militant network which is very active in our country", it claimed that the "hoisting of enemy flags by persons under wrong belief that it is a religious flag, require immediate attention of the government agencies."