SUNNI CENTRAL BOARD OF WAKFS Vs. SARDAR KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Section 115, Civil P.C., challenging an order passed by the learned District Judge of Aligarh relating to the removal of a committee of management of a certain waqf. There is a Muslim shrine in Jalesar called Dargah Ibrahim Sahab Sahid. It was held in 1928 that the property with which the shrine was endowed for the purpose of upkeep constituted a public waqf, and a committee of Musalmans of Jalesar was appointed for the purpose of management and a scheme was drawn up. This scheme was sanctioned by the Additional District Judge on 7 September 1929. An amendment was made in it by an order of the District Judge dated 18 September 1941, but the character of the waqf was not changed. It remained a public waqf and the management was left to a committee elected by the people of Jalesar, the final order to this effect being passed on 2 December, 1941. As regards the personnel of the committee, five persons whose names are given in the order of the District Judge as Wahabuddin, Ghulam Husain, Sardar Khan, Mumtaz Ahmad and Bashir Uddin were elected in 1942 and ordered to take charge of their duties on 11 April of that year. On 29 April of the following year, 1943, the Presidents the Central Sunni Waqf Board informed the District Judge, by telegram, that the Board had superseded these elected members and had appointed another committee consisting of other persons.

(2.) Objection was taken before the District Judge by the previously elected members that the President of the Central Sunni Waqf Board had no jurisdiction to remove them and the District Judge issued notice to the President to show cause why they should not be allowed to function. The District Judge heard arguments bearing on the powers of the Board under the Muslim Waqfs Act of 1936 (U. P. Act, 13 [XIII] of 1936) and held on 8 November 1943, that the supersession of the elected members referred to was not in accordance with law. He directed, therefore, that they should continue to function. It is against this order that the present revision application has been brought.

(3.) Arguments before us have related very largely to the question of the powers of the Central Sunni Waqf Board created by the Act of 1936 and in particular to the question whether they are empowered by that Act to remove a committee of management. The order removing the elected members named was passed by the President of the Central Sunni Waqf Board on 1 April 1943. The order shows that powers under Section 59 of the Act had been delegated to the President by the Central Board in respect of this waqf and the order was passed under the provisions of Section 59(2) of the Act. This section empowers the Central Board to supersede a committee of supervision which does not in its opinion function properly and satisfactorily. The view taken by the District Judge was that the committee of supervision referred to in this section is not a committee of management and, therefore, the Central Board had no power to supersede the committee of management. The primary question with which we are concerned is whether the District Judge had jurisdiction to interfere. That he possessed such power prior to the enactment of the Muslim Waqfs Act is not disputed. Once a waqf had been created the District Judge had general powers of control, these being the powers formerly exercised by the Qazi.