FAIZ MURTAZA ALI Vs. SYED AKBAR HUSSAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Learned Counsel for the petitioner. No one appears on behalf of Opposite Party No. 1 in spite of repeated notices validly served upon him. However, this petition stood dismissed for default on 12.2.2008 against Plaintiff -Opposite Party No. 2 due to non -compliance of the Court's order dated 24.1.2008. This Civil Revision has been filed on behalf of the sole defendant -petitioner Faiz Murtaza Ali challenging order dated 20.6.2005 by which the learned Subordinate Judge -II, Patna allowed the petition of Opposite Party No. 1 Syed Akbar Hussain and added him as party to Title Suit No. 214 of 2004.

(2.) THE aforesaid suit was filed by plaintiff -Opposite Party No. 2 Lalan Yadav for specific performance of Contract against the sole defendant -petitioner with respect to a piece of land situated at Frazer Road, Patna which is a portion of the Hasan Imam Wakf Estate duly recorded in the Bihar State Shia Wakf Board.

(3.) THE matter with respect to Hasan Imam Wakf Estate, of which the instant suit land is a portion, had come up for consideration before this Hon'ble Court in M.J.C. No. 596 of 2006 filed by the petitioner Faiz Murtaza Ali and the said petition was dismissed by the order of Division Bench of this Court dated 2.11.2006 reported in : 2007 (1) P.L.J.R. 130 in which their Lordships specifically held that it was yet another attempt to somehow grab and appropriate under personal ownership a prime property commonly known as 'the Rizwan', located in the heart of the city. For over half a century, it was known to the world as part of a Wakf created by Mr. Syed Hasan Imam, Bar -at -Law, one of the luminaries of the bar of this Court. It may be mentioned here that shortly after the demise of Mr. Syed Hasan Imam in the third decade of the previous century a dispute arose between his second (English) wife Natie Imam and the children from his first deceased wife. The matter came to this Court and at the instance of the Court the dispute between the parties was referred to the joint arbitration of two sitting Judges of the Court, namely, Macpherson and Khwaja Muhammad Noor, JJ. Before the arbitrators Natie Imam claimed that 'the Rizwan' was given to her by her late husband and it was, therefore, her personal property. The arbitrators however, rejected the claim and found and held that 'the Rizwan' was very much part of the Waqf created by Mr. Syed Hasan Imam.