Bench issued directions to the Bihar Sunni Waqf Board to conduct an inquiry into the criminal antecedents of newly constituted committee members and investigate alleged financial irregularities.
Directions issued for ascertaining criminal antecedents of office bearers, conducting inquiry into irregularities, and submitting reports within three months.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.5637 of 2023
======================================================
Md. Khurshid Alam Son of Late Sadre Alam, Resident of New Patliputra, P.S.- Patliputra, District- Patna.
... ... Petitioner/s
... ... Respondent/s
====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Md. Khurshid Alam (In-Person) Mr. Majid Mahboob Khan, Advocate Mr. Amit Narayan, Advocate For the State : Mr. Nalin Bilochan Tiwary, AC to GA-9 For the Waqf : Mr. Helal Ahmad, Advocate Mr. Ajaz Akhtar, Advocate ======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV ROY ORAL ORDER
Heard Mr. Md. Khurshid Alam who is appearing in-
person, Mr. Md. Ajaz Akhtar for the Waqf Board and Mr. Nalin Bilochan Tiwary, learned AC to GA-9.
A. For issuance of an appropriate writ order/direction to setting aside the Memo No. 5262 dated 14.12.2022 issued by the Chief Executive Officer, the Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board, Patna i.e. Respondent No-3, whereby Managing
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Committee of Waqf Estate No. 663 (Patna High Court Mazar Committee) has been dissolved and further directed to hand over the charge of Management to the authorized employee of the Board.
B. For setting aside the office order as contained in memo No. 5280 dated 15.12.2022 issued under the signature of Respondent No-3, whereby three employees of the Board were given charge of management of Waqf Estate No- 663.
C. For direction to the respondent authorities to get enquire the entire tenure of private respondent No-4 as Secretary of Waqf Estate No- 663 especially regarding financial affairs.
D. For stay the operation of Memo No. 5262 dated 14.12.2022 and office order contained in memo No. 5280 dated 15.12.2022, both are issued by the Chief Executive Officer, Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board, Patna and allow the petitioner to
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function as President till disposal of writ application.
E. For appropriate direction to the Board to produce the resolution Book of the Waqf No- 663 before the Hon'ble Court.
F. For any other relief(s) for which petitioner deserves in the opinion of this Hon'ble Court in the light of facts and circumstances of the case.”
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Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board, Patna (henceforth for short ‘the Board’) but in turn, they ensured that the other committee members resigns en masse which followed the letter/order in question by which he was informed by the Chief Executive Officer of ‘the Board’ vide letter no. 5262 dated 14.12.2022 (Annexure-7 to the petition) informing that 2/3 members of the committee have resigned and as such, the committee now stands dissolved. Accordingly, he was asked to hand over charges to the authorized Officer of the said ‘ Mazar’ .
folds:
(i) to constitute a proper committee in accordance with the Waqf Act, 1995 (henceforth for short ‘the Act’);
(ii) to direct the Waqf Board to look into the illegalities that is/are being committed by the authorized officers/members (Mutawallis) of the said Mazar.
21.12.2022 issued by the Joint Secretary-cum-Director of the
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Minority Welfare Department, Bihar, Patna addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of the Waqf Board raising the issue of the petitioner and directing him to look into the matter and do the needful at an earliest. His submission is that despite the letter being of 21.12.2022, they have chosen to look the other way which clearly shows that they are actually hand in glove with the ex-Secretary.
“ 23 . That in reply to statement made
in paragraphs No. 25 of the writ application it is humbly submitted that answering respondents are very much committed to their duties and obligations and have been working for protection and preservation of waqf properties as per the provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995
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(Amendment Act, 2013).”
paragraph-13 to 15, again the reply is vague inasmuch as it has put the ball in the court of the petitioner alleging that due to serious dispute between the members of the Managing Committee, it resulted into resignation of majority of the members.
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14.12.2022 under the signature of its Joint Secretary but the Department has not taken any follow up action. It is a wake up call for them too.
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committed by the earlier Committee as pointed out by the petitioner, it would be appropriate that the criminal antecedent of the President/Secretary as also the other office bearers of the present committee is/are ascertained specially whether any of them have criminal charge of misappropriation of public money.
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report to the Minority Welfare Department, Bihar, Patna replying to the letter no. 5262 dated 14.12.2022.
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three months of the representation preferred by the petitioner.
aforesaid direction/observation.
(Rajiv Roy, J)
Adnan/-
U
3 issues framed by the court
Whether directions are required to be issued to the Waqf Board regarding inquiry into criminal antecedents and illegalities of committee members.
Whether the Waqf Board is duty-bound to investigate allegations of misappropriation and produce resolution books.
Whether the petitioner is entitled to receive copies of the inquiry and action taken reports.
2 provisions across 1 enactments
Md. Khurshid Alam
The State of Bihar through the Principal Secretary, Department of Minority Welfare
The Chairman, Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board
The Chief Executive Officer, Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board
Md. Azim
Rajiv Roy
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
