SHAH NAJIHUDDIN AHMAD Vs. AMIR HASAN KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment and decree of a Subordinate Judge of Arrah who was specially empowered by Governments to try suits under Section 92, Civil P.C. The suit was brought under this section by ten Mahomedans of Sasaram, with the consent of the Legal Remembrancer (who has been appointed in this province under Section 93 to exercise the powers in question), against Shah Malihuddin Ahmad, Sajjadanashin and mutwalli of the wellknown endowment of the Sasaram Khanqah. The endowment consists principally of two Imperial grants, one of 1717 from the Emperor Farrukh Siyar. and the other of 1762 from the Emperor Shah Alam. The first of these grants was, according to the plaintiffs, appropriated to purely religious purposes, and the second to charitable purpose of a secular character, set out in paras. 7 and 8 (respectively) of the plaint.

(2.) The plaintiffs charged the defendant with being unfit to discharge and having failed to discharge the duties of Sajjadanashin and mutwalli and being guilty of misappropriation and waste; and they prayed for: (a) his removal from the office of Sajjadanashin-mutwalli; (b) accounts; (c) settling a scheme for the management and administration of the trust properties; (d) the appointment of a fit and proper person as Sajjadanashin and mutwalli, and other reliefs of an incidental character. The defendant by his written statement claimed to be the "real beneficiary" under the grants, and denied the charges of unfitness, misconduct and maladministration made against him.

(3.) The learned Subordinate Judge has found that the properties belong to the Khanqah, that the Sajjadanashin is entitled to appropriate the balance of the income from the Farrukhsiyari properties after meeting the cost of the religious obligations charged on them, that by his literary attainments and mode of life, the defendant is unfit to be the Sajjadanashin of the Khanqah, that there has been gross mismanagement in the administration of the wakf estate and also misappropriation and breach of trust by the defendant, and that he is therefore liable to be removed, but not until proper steps are taken by the plaintiffs or by some duly qualified descendant of Shah Kabir Darvesh, the founder of the Khanqah, to get a suitable Sajjadanashin-mutwalli appointed from among the descendants of the founder, preferably as near a relation of the present incumbent as possible.