Chennai: PIL seeks to reopen places of worship

CHENNAI: A Chennai resident has moved the Madras high court to permit reopening of religious places of worship such as temples, churches and mosques, and allow people to offer prayers with adequate social distancing.
According to the petitioner, RK Jaleel, since most of the shops and offices were already allowed to function in non-containment zones, there should not be any difficulty for the government to open religious institutions for prayers.
The public interest writ petition is likely to be taken up for hearing on Monday by a division bench of the high court.
"Except the containment areas, most of the establishments and shops were allowed to open. Industries, individual shops, IT companies, and MSME’s were allowed to open and conduct business," the petitioner said.
The petitioner further claimed that besides the financial burden caused by the Covid-19 outbreak and nationwide lockdown, the situation has caused mental distress to many. Opening temples and other religious places would help such people to get peace of mind by offering prayers to their respective gods.
This apart, this is the month of Ramadan, a holiest month of the year for Muslims, he added.
Therefore, he wanted the court to intervene in the matter and direct the state government to allow reopening of religious places and permit public to offer prayers by diligently following all Covid-19 guidelines such as physical distancing, wearing of masks, etc.