Supreme Court Backs Army, Bars Civilian Prayers at Chennai Cantonment Mosque

The Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was hearing a petition challenging an April 2025 judgment of a Madras High Court division bench.

The High Court had upheld a single-judge order declining to interfere with the Army’s decision restricting civilian entry into the ‘Masjid-E-Aalishaan,’ located within the cantonment area.

During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner argued that civilians had been allowed to pray at the mosque from 1877 until 2022 and that restrictions were introduced only during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bench, however, was unmoved.

“There are security issues and so many things. How can we allow that?” the Bench observed while rejecting the plea.

Before the High Court, the petitioner had contended that the Army had stopped permitting civilian worshippers at the mosque without adequate justification. The division bench had noted that the Station Commander had verbally rejected the petitioner’s representation in June 2021, clarifying that the mosque was primarily for use by Army personnel and “strictly not for outsiders” under the Cantonment Land Administration Rules, 1937.

Holding that it was within the Army administration’s prerogative to decide whether outsiders could be allowed entry into a sensitive installation, the High Court had refused to interfere.

The Supreme Court affirmed that reasoning and declined to entertain the appeal.