Religion: Allahabad High Court rules out the use of loudspeakers for Azaan.

Allahabad High Court, on Friday, ruled out azaan, i.e. call for prayer, after accepting that azaan is an integral part of the religion, Islam but pointed out reciting it through sound-amplifying devices or loudspeakers cannot be deemed to be an integral part of Islam and does not violate the Constitution of India's Article 25 which gives every citizen a fundamental right to religion subject to public order, health, morality and to other provisions, Part Three of the Constitution.

Earlier, Hathras, Farrukhabad and Ghazipur administrations had ordered mosques to stop reciting azaan through loudspeakers in lieu of the COVID-19 guidelines. This was challenged in court by senior advocate S Wasim A Qadri, Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari and Congress leader Salman Khurshid. A bench of Justices Shashi Kant Gupta and Ajit Kumar, on Friday, said, "recitation of azaan can be done by the muezzin from the mosques with human voice without using any amplifying devices and unless such guidelines are being violet the administration should not cause any hindrance." 

The bench further said," Under no circumstances can the sound amplifiers be allowed to be used between 10 PM and 6 AM by the administration, the petitioners have failed to bring on record or even plead that they sought any such permission for the use of sound-amplifying devices, for the recital of azaan from their respective mosques and therefore, their use without such permission would be illegal and cannot be accorded approval by this court. However, in case any such application is filed before the concerned authorities, that may be dealt with in accordance with law including Noise Pollution Rules". 

Syed Safdar Ali Kazmi, the petitioners' counsel, was content with the judgement as they just wanted permission for azaan which the honourable court granted.