HAJI MAHAMMAD NABI SHIRAZI Vs. PROVINCE OF BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from an-order of the learned Subordinate Judge of the First Court at Hooghly, dated 24 April 1939, by which, he dismissed the appellant's suit on preliminary grounds. The suit was instituted by certain persona purporting to represent the Shia community of Moslems, for a declaration that a certain endowment at Hooghly, sometimes called the Mohsiniya wakf, was intended for the upkeep of animambara, for the celebration of religious ceremonies therein, and for the benefit of the Shia community and not for any secular use?. A mandatory injunction was prayed for against defendant 1, the Seoretary of State for India in Council, directing him to act in future in accordance with the declaration sought.-The other persons impleaded as defendants were the members of the Committee of Management of the Imambara, defendants 1 to 6(a), and the Commissioner of Wakfs, Bengal, defendant 7. The case made in the plaint was to the following effect : In, the year 1806, Haji Mohammad Mohsin, a Shia Mussalman created by deed a wakf of extensive properties embracing a zemindary estate in Jessore known as the Syedpur estate, the Imambara building, and bazar land in Hooghly. The wakfnamai allocated the income between certain objects in the following properties: Three-ninths for the expenses of religious ceremonies in the imambara, and for repairs to the imambara and to a cemetery;

(2.) Two-ninth as the remuneration of two mutwallis;

(3.) Four-ninth for the upkeep of the establishment, salaries of servants, and monthly stipends to certain specified persons.