New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has directed the Uttar Pradesh police and Saharanpur district administration to not interfere with the right to recite Azan (Islamic call for prayers) five times a day at a mosque, reported Hindustan Times.A division bench of Justices Ajit Kumar and Garima Prashad issued the order while disposing of a writ petition filed by Shanawaz Khan and five other local residents.In its order dated October 1, the court directed the petitioners to submit an application along with a notarised affidavit stating that they would strictly comply with the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, as well as the directions issued by the division bench in the Afzal Ansari case.The high court said in its order that once such an application and affidavit were filed, “the police and district administration would not be interfering in the petitioners’ right to perform Azaan five times in the Ayesha Mosque situated at plot no. 47, Village Pathed, Police Station Gagalhedi, District Saharanpur,” reported Hindustan Times.In their plea, the petitioners had requested permission to use loudspeakers for Azan at Ayesha Masjid. They had also alleged that the local administration in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state were obstructing them despite judicial precedents governing the use of sound-amplifying devices.Earlier, the counsel for the state government had cited the 2020 judgment of the high court in Afzal Ansari v. State of UP, which ruled that while Azan is an essential Islamic practice, its recitation through loudspeakers or other sound-amplifying devices is not an integral part of the religion.