FUZUL KARIM Vs. HAJI MOWLA BUKSH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHEN the plaint in this suit was filed the Plaintiffs were the two present Appellants and one Hafiz Mowla Buksh. The last-named Plaintiff was the Imam and Moazzin of a mosque in Tajpore, and the two others were Mutwalis of the same mosque. The Defendants were twelve persons who worshipped at the mosque. The plaint alleged that the Defendants, being dissatisfied with certain variations in the ceremonial which the Imam had introduced, interfered with his performance of the service, and claimed to conduct the service in their own way, and otherwise misbehaved themselves.

(2.) THE relief prayed was as follows:

(3.) IN their written statement the Defendants did not deny that Mafia Mowla Buksh had been Imam and Moazzin for twenty-five years, nor that the other Plaintiffs acted as Mutwalis, but they defended themselves by alleging in effect that the Plaintiffs had forfeited their offices by reason of heresy. The two material pleas are as follows: Prior to this, the Plaintiff No. 1 was Moazzin and led people to prayer. But he has renounced his Hanif religion and embraced the Wahabi religion. That being so, the Plaintiff No. 1 can by no means now, according to Mahomedan law and rule, claim to bo Imam and Moazzin, and therefore he has no right to bring the suit. The Plaintiffs Nos. 2 and 3 are, on their own showing, not Matwalis. They are certainly sons of the deceased Matwali Kazi Ramizuddin. But they can have, in Mahomedan law, no right to the matwaliship simply because they are sons (of the deceased Matwali). Besides this, the Plaintiffs Nos. 2 and 3 have renounced their previous and paternal religion and joined the Wahabi sect That being so, they have no right whatever to the management of the disputed musjid.