'Licence not needed for Gurudwara kitchen'

A city court has ordered reopening of a community kitchen-cum-hall of a South Delhi Gurudwara, saying no licence is required to run a non-commercial public eatery attached to a religious body.

A city court has ordered reopening of a community kitchen-cum-hall of a South Delhi Gurudwara, saying no licence is required to run a non-commercial public eatery attached to a religious body.

Additional Sessions Judge V K Bansal ordered reopening of Sundram 'langar hall' (community kitchen) of Gurudwara Baba Banda Bahadur in Mehrauli, setting aside a magisterial court order to close down the public eatery-cum-congregation hall.

The magisterial court had ordered the closure of the Gurudwara's langer after one Desh Raj had pleaded guilty for the alleged offence of running it without licence.

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"I found that according to the position of law as laid down by the Supreme Court, langer hall is a part of Gurudwara and a langer is run for needy people, where any devotee or any other person can take food, for which, he need not to make payment," ASJ Bansal said.

The court ordered reopening of the community kitchen and hall on a plea by Gurudwara Baba Banda Bahadur Prabandhak Committee, challenging the magisterial court's order and contending that Desh Raj had nothing to do with running of the community kitchen.