NEW DELHI: The Supreme court on Monday agreed to hear a plea filed by chairman of Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqfs Board seeking ban on hoisting of green flags with crescent and star by Muslim community and sought the Centre’s response after it was alleged that it was not a symbol of religion and resembled the Pakistani political party Muslim League flag.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked the petitioner to hand over copy of the petition to additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta and asked him to take a stand on the issue after getting instruction from the Centre.

Syed Waseem Rizvi, in his petition, alleged that the flag had nothing to do with the religion of Islam and termed it an ‘enemy’ flag as it resembled the symbol of a Pakistani party. “Indian Muslim wrongly treating it as the Islamic flag and the same are hoisted in Muslim dominated areas of our country with utmost impunity airing the communal strife between the Hindus and the Muslims. It is further relevant to state that the crescent and star in a green backdrop have never been a part of any Islamic practice and it does not have any role or significance in Islam,” the petition said.

The petitioner alleged that the flag owed its origin to the erstwhile Muslim League founded by Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1906 and it was now being used by Pakistan Muslim League. He said that the flag was adopted as a Pakistani flag after inserting a white band and it could not be termed as religious flag.

“In this backdrop, the hoisting of the Pakistani or Pakistani political party’s identical flags in our country on celebratory occasions of Muslims or even otherwise distances them from the religious majority which rightly looks at such acts as anti-national and communal. It would also be relevant to state that the people who hoist such flags, owing to their illiteracy, would not even be aware of the communal disharmony they are propagating by the said act of theirs,” the petition said.

“The constitution promotes secularism as a part of the basic structure and certain rights are given to the religious minorities, but the said rights do not include within its ambit, the right to design and hoist flags akin to that of the enemy country and hoist them on their residences, shops, commercial establishment and other places, to the anxiety and utter disgust of others,” it said.

