The Allahabad High Court on Friday said that every citizen has the right to celebrate festivals in a peaceful manner, PTI reported.

The court observed this after a group of villagers from Uttar Pradesh’s Birner village in Kaushambi district complained that they were not being allowed to celebrate Christmas.

“We hope that unless there are some law and order issues involved, authorities concerned will not decline permission to celebrate festival in the village,” a bench comprising Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice MK Gupta said while allowing the public interest litigation filed by Sanjay Singh and 34 other Christians.

The court directed authorities to consider the petitioners’ pending application seeking permission to celebrate Christmas on or before Monday. The petitioners said that during the recent local body elections, the administration had imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibited the assembly of more than four people in the village.

Under the “garb” of these prohibitory orders, the petitioners said, they were now not being allowed to celebrate Christmas. The bench said that the prohibitory orders were only for the time of the elections, and the petitioners would not face any difficulty now.

During the hearing, the state’s counsel said that the revellers would use loudspeakers during their celebrations, according to Hindustan Times. To this, the court said: “If loudspeakers are being used as per norms and only till the time it is permissible in law, how can you deny permission?”

Another court in Uttar Pradesh had on Thursday ordered five leaders of an outfit affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to not go within 500 metres of missionary schools and churches in the district on December 25, after the Hindu Jagran Manch warned the institutes against celebrating Christmas.