KUTUBUDDIN AHMED Vs. BOARD OF WAKFS WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners claiming to be members of the Muslim Public and "person interested in a wakf" under the provisions of section 6(5) of the Bengal Wakf Act, 1934 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), filed this writ application. The petitioners have challenged the functioning of the Board of Wakf and have prayed for inter alia the following reliefs ;

(2.) The petitioners have also prayed for an ad interim order of injunction restraining the Board of Wakf and its members from according to any sanction for any transfer of any wakf property under section 53 of the Act or under any other provisions of law and from regularising any lease sale or transfer of any kind. An interim order was passed on 26th June 1992 directing the status quo as of that date with regard to transfer of possession of any of the properties mentioned in Annexures B and C to the petition and under the jurisdiction and domain of the Board of Wakf until the disposal of the application. The order was corrected on 30th August 1993 to the extent that the properties mentioned in Annexure A and B were to be read as Annexures B and C.

(3.) It is the petitioners' case that there are about 16000 recorded wakf estates in West Bengal. It was alleged that the Board of Wakf which was to be constituted under the 1934 Act was misusing the power granted to it under section 53 of that Act by according sanction to the transfer of wakf properties without any legal necessity and without making an enquiry as to the true intention behind such transfer. It was said that powers conferred on the Board and the Commissioner of Wakfs was being used for the personal gain of some interested persons resulting in destruction of the wakf estates. It was further alleged that although on paper the Board of Wakfs consisted of 11 members but in practice the functions of the Board were being discharged by five members only. Three instances of wakf properties being permitted to be transferred have been given.