PUNJAB WAKF BOARD Vs. SUKHBIR KAUR AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Civil Revision is against the order of the Wakf Tribunal, dismissing the suit for ejectment and for some preventive relief sought by the Punjab Wakf Board against the defendant, who admittedly was in possession. The plaintiff/petitioners relied on the jamabandi for the year 1993-1994, referring the property in the column of ownership to be that of the plaintiff, while the defendant referred to the jamabandi for the year 1968-1969 referring the property as that of the Central Government. The petitioners' contention was that the jamabandi recorded in the revenue record at a later point of time was to be relied upon. The Tribunal did not find any virtue in this argument and dismissed the contention. The same contention has been advanced before this Court. Section 110 of the Evidence Act makes possible an inference that a person in possession shall be taken to be in lawful possession unless a person who seeks ejectment shows better proof of title. Reliance on revenue entries themselves are mere evidence of title and are not documents of title. Section 114 of the Evidence Act allows for a discretionary inference of correctness of official entry for it uses an expression "may presume" in a given situation where there are two rival entries. When a person is sought to be ejected, the Wakf Tribunal could not have relied on merely a revenue entry without proof of entry of the property as endowed as wakf. The endowment is invariably supported by a gazette notification under Section 5 of the Wakf Act. Even a gazette notification will have only a corroborative evidentiary value and there ought to have been some documents showing the property vested in the wakf. The power of the Wakf Tribunal under Section 6A of the Wakf Act is to adjudge on whether a particular property is wakf or not. When the contest was entered, the plaintiff did not discharge the burden which was squarely on it. I do not find any error in the order of the Tribunal warranting interference in revision. The order is maintained and the revision is dismissed.