The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to respond to a plea seeking a ban on green flags with a crescent and a star that are seen at various buildings and religious places, PTI reported. Such flags are “un-Islamic” and resemble the flag of a Pakistani political party, the petitioner, Shia Waqf Board chairperson Syed Waseem Rizvi, claimed.

Rizvi said such flags on several buildings and religious structures caused communal tension. The flags resembled those of the Pakistan Muslim League, a party in an “enemy country”, the petition said.

The bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked Rizvi’s counsel to send a copy of the plea to Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta so that he can reply on behalf of the Centre. The court will next hear the plea in two weeks, Bar and Bench reported.

The Muslim League, which was founded in 1906, used such a flag, and Indian Muslims now hoist it too, treating it as an Islamic flag, the petition said. The flag does not have any significance in Islam, but people in Muslim-dominated areas hoist such flags with “utmost impunity”, said the plea.