ALL INDIA SHIA CONFERENCE Vs. TAQI HADI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under Section 226 of the Constitution. The applicant All India Shia conference is a registered Society under the Societies Registration Act 21 of 1860. It is a representative body of the Shias of India. It has been given representation on the Shia Central waqf Board, formed under the U. P. Muslim Waqfs Act 13 of 1936. That Act created two bodies, the Shia Central Waqf Board and the Sunni Central Waqf Board to look after and manage Shia and Sunni Waqfs respectively. Section 8 provided for the constitution of the Shia Central Board which shall consist of

(2.) SECTION 9 then provided:

(3.) IT will be observed that Section 8 (1) (i) directed five members to be elected by the Shia members of the local Legislature not necessarily from amongst themselves, but in Section 12 the five members referred to in Section 8 were described as members of the local Legislature. There was, therefore, an ambiguity and a certain amount of conflict between Section 8 (1) (i) and section 12. After the formation of the first Shia Central Waqf Board the practice in the past is alleged to have been that whenever there were less than five Shia members of the local legislature the deficiency was made up by calling upon the All India Shia Conference to elect the requisite number of members under Section 9. But in the middle of July 1952, in a fresh election to the Shia Central Waqf Board when the Shia members of the State Legislature were only three, namely Syed Taqi Hadi, Syed Mohammad wasi and Syed Aii Zaheer, opposite parties Nos. 1 to 3, they elected besides themselves two more members, namely Raja Syed Ahmad Mehdi and Nawab Hamid Hussain, opposite parties nos. 4 and 5, who were not members of the Legislature. The applicant's grievance is that this could not be done under the law by the opposite parties Nos. 1 to 3, that since the members of the local Legislature were only three, the applicant had the right to elect the remaining two members and that this right could not be taken away by the opposite parties Nos. 1 to 3. The applicant, therefore, moved this Court by means of the present writ petition on 1-8-1952, to direct the opposite parties Nos. 4 and 5 not to participate in the proceedings of the Shia Central waqf Board as its members and further to direct opposite parties Nos. 1 to 3 to cause the deficiency in the membership of the Shia Central Waqf Board to be made up by the applicant as contemplated by Section 9 of the Act.