BOARD OF THISTEES AYURVEDIC AND UNANI TIBIA COLLEGE DELHI Vs. STATE OF DELHI NOW DELHI ADMINISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a writ petition on behalf of two petitioners. The first petitioner is the Board of Trustees. Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College Delhi, through Hakim Mohammad Jamil Khan, stated to be its properly elected Secretary. The second petitioner is Hakim Mohammad Jamil Khan himself, who states that he is still one of the trustees or members of the said Board. The petition was initially filed on, behalf of the first petitioner. Subsequently, an amendment petition was moved which was allowed by us. As a result of the amendments allowed petitioner No. 2 was added as one of the petitioners, and certain new grounds of attack were added in para. 14 of the petition. To these grounds we shall advert later.

(2.) The short facts giving rise to the petition are these. One Hakim Muhammad Ajmal Khan was a physician (of Unani medicine) of all-India repute. He lived in Delhi and started a pharmaceutical institute in the town known as Hindustani Dawakhana in the year 1903. He also established a medical college known as the Tibbia College. He died in the year 1927. But before his death, in the year 1911, he along with certain other persons formed a society styled Anjuman-i- Tibbia and had it registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (Act XXI of 1860). The name of the society was changed in 1915, and it became known as the Board of Trustees, Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College, Delhi. For convenience we shall refer to it as the Board. The Board ran the Tibbia College and an attached hostel. The pharmaceutical institute was also managed by it, though at one stage petitioner No. 2 claimed the institute as his private property. Certain rules and regulations were made for the functioning of the Board, which were amended from time to time. The main objects of the Board were thus stated in the rules :-

(3.) In the year 1948 Shri Rameshwar Dayal, the then Collector of Delhi, and Dr. Yudhvir Singh, the then President of the Delhi Municipal Committee, and certain other persons were elected as members of the Board. Dr. Yudhvir Singh was elected President and one Shri Mool Chand Gagerna was appointed Joint Secretary. Soon after the elections in 1948, a struggle ensued between different groups of members for obtaining control of the Board and the college, and for possession of the Hindustani Dawakhana. Certain criminal proceedings followed. On October 18, 1949 a suit was brought in the court of the senior Subordinate Judge, Delhi under S. 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure against the Secretary and 31 members of the Board. In that suit an application was made for the appointment of a receiver and on October 19, 1949 the Subordinate Judge appointed two local advocates as joint receivers with plenary powers. These receivers took possession of the dawakhana and the college between October 19 and 23, 1949. When the suit was still pending, the Delhi State Legislature passed an Act called the Tibbia college Act, 1952 (Delhi Act No. 5 of 1952), hereinafter referred to as the impugned Act. this Act came into force on October 10, 1952. The constitutional validity of the Act is the principal question for decision on this writ petition and we shall presently refer to the provisions thereof. We may only state here that by S. 9 of the impugned Act, the Board stood dissolved and all property, movable and immovable, and all rights, powers and privileges of the Board vested in a new Board constituted under the Act. This new Board is called the Tibbia College Board and we shall refer to it as the new Board. After the passing of the impugned Act, the suit instituted before the Subordinate judge, Delhi, was withdrawn. On the withdrawal of the suit an application was made for making over possession of the properties to the new Board . That application was allowed in spite of the objection of petitioner No. 1. Petitioner No. 1 unsuccessfully moved the High Court of Punjab against that order.