A mosque in Kashmir is a place of worship, but it is also an institution governed by rules, responsibilities and religious traditions. 

When an administrative authority seeks to prescribe what an Imam should say during Friday prayers, the question extends beyond the sermon itself. 

It concerns the limits of public power and the law that defines them.

Dr. Darakhshan Andrabi, chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, has asserted a position on uniform Friday sermons that raises serious questions about the statutory authority of her office. 

The Board has an established responsibility to oversee waqf properties and institutions. Whether that responsibility extends to determining the content of religious sermons is a separate question, one that must be answered through the law.

The distinction calls for scrutiny because administrative authority can easily acquire a wider meaning than the legislature intended. 

A body created to manage religious endowments may exercise substantial powers over their administration. Those powers, however, do not automatically extend to the religious speech delivered within the institutions it oversees.

The Waqf Act of 1995, as amended, provides the legal framework for examining this question. 

Its principal purpose is the administration, supervision and proper management of auqaf, or waqf........

© Kashmir Observer