ABDUL KAREEM Vs. SPECIAL OFFICER FOR WAKFS MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PLAINTIFF is the appellant. Suit is for declaration that the publication dated 6-51959 in the official Gazette in respect of the suit property declaring that it is a wakf property is illegal, ultra vires and void in so far as it is against the plaintiff and defendants 2 to 5 and for setting aside the same.

(2.) THE plaint allegations are that the suit property belongs to the plaintiff and defendants 2 to 4, that the fifth defendant is the usufructuary mortgagee of the said property and that the suit property is not wakf property within the meaning of he Wakf Act but private property belonging to the plaintiff and defendants 2 to 4. The authorities, however, called upon the plaintiff to register the suit property as wakf property and the plaintiff was resisting the claim. While so, the plaintiff's case is that the suit property has been notified as wakf property and that the plaintiff was informed on 6-10-1960 of the publication in the Gazette dated 6-5-1959 of the suit property as wakf property. The plaintiff's further case is that no enquiry was made in determining the character of the suit property and that the enquiry, if any, was if at all done behind his back and that the publication is ultra vires of the act.

(3.) THE first defendant filed a written statement contending that the suit property is wakf property dedicated to the support of the burial ground, that the Assistant commissioner of Wakfs after due enquiry furnished the report under Section 4 (3)of the Wakf Act to the Government that the publication in the Gazette was made in consequence thereof and further that the suit is barred by limitation as it was filed beyond the period of one year provided under Section 6 (1) of the Act.