News Analysis India

Tag: Sunni Waqf Board

  • Ayodhya: SC trashes plea for summoning Waqf Board-backed IICF Trust records

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking summoning of Trust deed of Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), constituted by the Sunni Waqf Board, to construct the mosque-hospital complex at Ayodhya in the five-acre land and termed it as an interference in its Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute verdict of 2019.

    The plea challenged an Allahabad High Court order rejecting an application for summoning of the Trust deed of IICF.

    On November 9, 2019, the top court had in a unanimous historic verdict cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque.

    A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna said that it is not going to interfere with the June 14, order of the High Court and dismissed the plea.

    “We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution. The Special Leave Petition is accordingly dismissed”, the bench said.

    It said, “This plea is to interfere with our Ayodhya Verdict. Sorry, we are not going to interfere with the High Court order. This is how litigation has become a gamble.”

    The High Court had on June 14 this year refused to direct to summon the records including Trust deed from Sunni Waqf Board by virtually dismissing a PIL filed by Nadeem Ahmad and others.

    The petitioners have sought quashing of the formation of the Trust and have sought summoning of the records of the trust claiming to be in the possession of Sunni Central Board of Waqf.

    They have claimed in the PIL before the High Court that the Waqf Board, whose term was extended time to time by the state government, has neither the jurisdiction to constitute the Trust nor any power to utilise the five-acre land given to it in pursuant to the direction of the top court.

    They have alleged that Waqf Board is not supplying the certified copy of the Trust of deed and it is impossible to produce them in the court.

    The petitioners referred to the 1984 verdict of the top court that in a PIL it is necessary to depart from the adversarial procedure and to evolve a new procedure which will make it possible to bring necessary material before the court for enforcement of the fundamental rights and the law.

    “In the present case the petitioners have brought cogent material which amounts to produce secondary evidence before the court with regard to the formation of the said Trust in the forms of the various news report and from own website of the said Trust and it is not possible for the petitioners to produce the copy of the Trust deed which is admittedly in the possession of Waqf Board which is not producing the same before the court,” the plea said.

    The appeal filed through advocate Shashank Singh said that the only option left with the petitioners was to apply under the Right to Information Act and to apply for a certified copy of the Trust deed but despite these requests, the Waqf Board has not supplied the same.

    “In the circumstances, the high court ought to have allowed the application for summoning the record and should have directed the respondent Waqf Board and other respondents to produce the Trust deed before the court or direction should have been issued to the Waqf Board to supply a certified copy of the same to the petitioners,” the plea said.

    Terming the dismissal of the application as “illegal and arbitrary”, the plea said that the High Court has acted illegally and failed to exercise the jurisdiction vested in it.

    On June 14, the High Court had granted liberty to the petitioners to file the documents related to the Trust deed and other relevant material before the court in four weeks.

    It had said that within four weeks the petitioners shall file the Trust deed which sought to be quashed and if it is not done so, the writ petition would stand dismissed for non-compliance of the order of the court.

    The High Court has directed the PIL to be listed on July 25 but said that if the compliance of the order is not made within four weeks the petition will not be listed.

  • BJP Barabanki MP accuses Sunni Waqf Board of land-grabbing, backs mosque demolition

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: BJP’s Barabanki MP Upendra Rawat wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday, supporting the demolition of a mosque in the district and accusing the Sunni Waqf Board of grabbing government land.

    The Waqf Board has grabbed government land in the name of mosques and got them registered illegally, Rawat said, demanding a probe in the matter.

    The Barabanki administration had on Monday night pulled down the mosque at the Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil, saying the construction was illegal and demolished on court orders.

    “I request the chief minister to probe the illegal grabbing of land by the Sunni Waqf Board in the name of mosques in districts and take strict action against those found guilty,” Rawat wrote.

    Speaking to PTI, the MP referred to the Sunni Waqf Board’s stand that the mosque was 100 years old and asked why it was registered in 2018 if it was that old.

    Waqf Board chairman Zufur Farooqui, meanwhile, said the board was ready for any probe in this matter.

    Asked about the Ram Sanehi Ghat mosque, he said it was registered in 1968 as a religious place.

    The All-India Muslim Law Board (AIMPLB) and the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board on Tuesday demanded a judicial probe into the demolition.

    “The century-old Garib Nawaz mosque in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil was demolished by the administration without any legal justification on Monday night in the presence of police,” AIMPLB working general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rehmani said in a statement.

    Barabanki District Magistrate (DM) Adarsh Singh, however, said the structure was illegal, and the tehsil administration got its possession on March 18.

    He said the the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had disposed of a petition filed in this connection on April 2, which proved that the construction was illegal.

    The DM said a case was then filed in the court of the sub-divisional magistrate of Ram Sanehi Ghat, and its orders were complied with on May 17.

    Farooqui said the Waqf Board will soon file a court case.

  • UP court reserves order on plea for status quo in Shahi Idgah mosque premises

    By PTI
    MATHURA: A Mathura court has reserved its order on a plea that accuses the Shahi Idgah Masjid authorities of trying to remove the mosque’s stone slabs and other structural material bearing Hindu religious inscriptions.

    Senior Civil Judge Neha Banaudia reserved her order on the application seeking the court’s directive for a status quo in the mosque premises before its examination by the court commissioner, said Mathura district government counsel Sanjai Ajai Gaur on Thursday.

    The application was filed on Wednesday by advocate Mahendra Pratap Singh and four others and had accused the mosque management committee and Sunni Waqf Board authorities of trying to remove stone slabs and other structural materials of the mosque on Tuesday.

    They had earlier moved the court seeking the appointment of a court commissioner to examine the mosque premises for the alleged presence of Hindu religion inscriptions on slabs and other structural material used to build the mosque close to the Katra Keshav Dev temple in Mathura.

    The application for the appointment of a court commissioner is slated for hearing on March 9.

    Advocate Singh along with his co-applicants had earlier moved the court for shifting the 17th-century mosque located near the temple which devotees believe to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna.