The Calcutta High Court on Thursday heard a dispute over regulated access to the 136-year-old Bankra mosque located near the runway inside Kolkata airport premises, after the Airports Authority of India cited security breaches and sought the structure’s relocation. The mosque committee challenged the stoppage of access, while the court urged the parties to follow due process on both security and worship-related concerns.
Justice Krishna Rao referred during the hearing to Wednesday’s mid-air cockpit confrontation aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia after a stabbing incident involving the pilot and co-pilot. The judge made the reference after Additional Solicitor General Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi argued that security considerations could not be subordinated to what he described as “logical expectations”.
Senior advocate SN Mookherjee, appearing for the Airports Authority of India, told the court that several security breaches had been detected around the airport area, including instances of unauthorised people being spotted on the runway. He said the mosque committee was agreeable to shifting the mosque elsewhere and indicated that documents supporting the position would be presented to the court.
The mosque committee’s lawyer, senior advocate Kishore Datta, opposed any immediate action without following the prescribed legal process. He said that if security breaches had occurred, the authorities should have acted against the individuals responsible rather than abruptly stopping access to the mosque. Datta also submitted that there had been no security concern related to the mosque for the past 50 years and argued that regulated access could continue for some more time.
According to the committee’s submissions, access to Bankra Masjid, also known as Gouripur Jame Masjid, was stopped by the Airports Authority of India on July 11. Since then, no namaz has been offered at the mosque. The committee said worshippers had not been allowed to enter freely: they were escorted from the Jessore Road gate to the mosque and back after producing identity cards and undergoing frisking by Central Industrial Security Force personnel.
The mosque is located deep inside the airport’s operational area and has been a point of contention for decades. The committee said between 10 and 25 devotees had earlier offered prayers there five times a day under the regulated-access arrangement. The airport authorities, however, have cited the mosque’s location as a safety risk and an obstacle to flight operations.
When Datta sought an interim order permitting prayers at the mosque, Trivedi opposed the request and said prayers could be offered elsewhere. Justice Rao then suggested that one room could be provided inside the airport itself. The court did not issue an interim order allowing access during the hearing, according to the report.
The committee’s position on relocation also appeared to shift outside court. Jamil Ahmad, a committee member and regular worshipper, told The Times of India that prayers should be allowed while discussions on relocation continued. The committee had earlier said it understood the challenges created by the mosque’s location but was not empowered to decide on relocation because it regarded the structure as a house of God. It had sought consultation with Darul Uloom Deoband, the Muslim Personal Law Board and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.
The dispute now centres on how access to a legacy religious structure inside an operational airport can be regulated while meeting aviation-security requirements. The court is considering the submissions of the airport authority and the mosque committee, including the proposed relocation and the committee’s demand that any action follow due process.