ABEDA KHATOON Vs. HARMEET KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is the defendant in a civil suit and complains of the trial court dismissing an application for rejecting the plaint on the ground that the property covered by the suit was a wakf property.

(2.) In support of the petitioner's contention that the suit ought to be carried to a wakf tribunal, Sec. 85 of the Wakf Act, 1995 is cited. Such provision mandates that no suit or other legal proceedings shall lie in any civil court in respect of any dispute, question or other matter relating to any wakf, wakf property or other matter which is required by or under the Act to be determined by a tribunal.

(3.) The petitioner also refers to Sec. 83(5) of the Act by which a wakf tribunal is elevated to the status of a civil court. The petitioner relies on a decision reported at 2011 (1) WBLR (SC) 308. In the cited case, the opinion of this court on its original side was sought by way of originating summons and the question pertained to the character of the property. It was in such context that the Supreme Court opined that the matter ought to have been carried to the wakf tribunal and not to this court. Several paragraphs from the judgment have been placed to give the impression that any matter pertaining to wakf may be carried to a wakf tribunal and the jurisdiction of a civil court would be barred. However, a judgment has to be read not as an edict on stone but in the context of the facts pertaining thereto. In the reported case, a question as to the character of the property was raised in the originating summons when such a question could have been carried to a wakf tribunal under Sec. 7 of the Act of 1995.