SC seeks Centre's reply over plea on 'unIslamic' flags

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to respond to a plea made by the Shia Waqf Board Chairman for a ban on hoisting green flags with a crescent and a star at buildings and religious places across the country.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked the counsel for Shia Waqf Board chairman Syed Waseem Rizvi to serve a copy of the petition to Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to enable him to file a reply on behalf of the Centre.

Rizvi, in his plea, has claimed that green flags with a crescent and a star are "un-Islamic" and resembled the flag of a Pakistani political party.

He also claimed in his plea that during his visit to Mumbai and other places in the country, he saw flags on several buildings and religious structures, reportedly causing tension between the Hindu and Muslim communities.

The plea said the flags resembled the flags of the Pakistan Muslim League, which belongs to an "enemy country".

It claimed that the green flag with crescent and star owes its origin to the erstwhile political party Muslim League founded by Nawaz Waqar Ul-Malik and Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1906.

Presently, it is being used by Indian Muslims who are treating it as an Islamic flag, it said.

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