The High Court · 2025

Petition undr:r Section 15'1 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit fired in support of the petition, the High court may be preased to suspehd the proceedings F No O lMDKCl2OlllZ- lV dated 26- 06- 2023' pending disposat o1'the Writ Appeal in the interest of justice and equity counself ortheAppelrant:sRl'383'Bt-%'#=^f#QURESHT' REP SRI MD ABDUL MATEEN QURESHI RAVI N D E R L EAR N E D G P 8[',,i\iXITIH ','i FSHTS'SS HiTffi EI IX"#J fr Counsel for the Respondent No'2: SRI MOHD' ISMAIL Counsel for the Respondent Nos' 3'4&6to10: SRI MOHD' ASIF AMJAD Counsel for the Respondent Nos'5&7: - The Court made the following: ORDER TIIE HON'BLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE SUJOY PAUL AND THE HON,BLE SMT' JUSTICE R'ENUKA YARA APPEAL No.827 of2024 T:N (Per the Hon 'ble the Acting Cttief Justice Sujog Paul) JU DGME Sri Abdul Muqeeth Qureshi' learned Senior Counsel representlng Sri Md. Abdul Mateen Qureshi' learned counsel for the aPPellant; Sri Ana,thula Ravinder, learned Government Pleader for B'C'Welfare' Social Welfare a,d Minority Welfare for respondent No' 1; Sri Mohd' Ismail' learned counsel for respondent No 2; and Sri Mohd' Asif Amjad' learned counsel for respondent Nos'3' 4 and 6 to 10' DePartment'

2. Heard on admission'

3. Learned Senior Counsel for the appellant assailed the order passed in w.p.No.2004g of 2023, whereby the cated 2r.03.2024 learned Single Judge declined the relief sought by the appellant (writ petitioner) and relegated the appellant to avail the remedy before the Waqf Tribunat' The contention of the learned Senior Counsel for the appellant is that the appellant was appointed as Mutawalli and was never removed by any express order in exercise \ \ T 2 t. of power under Sectio n 64 of the Waqf Act, 1995' In absence thereof, the respondents had no authoritv, jurisdiction and competencet-oappointaCommitteebytheorclerimpugnedinthe writ petition d.ated 26.06.2023. By placing reliance on a Division Bench judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in A'P'Wakf Board v. Mohd- Hidyathullar and alother judgment of the Andhra Praclesh High Court in Md' Saleem Ur Rahman v' A.P.StateWakfBoardz,thelearnedSeniorCourrselforthe appellant submits that there was no disputed question of fact and therefore relegating the appellant to the Waqf Tribuna,l was not proper.Whenprinciplesofnaturaljusticearegrosslyviolated,the writ petition is maintainable. ReLiance is placed on the judgment oftheSupremeCourtinWhirlpoolCorporationv.Registrarof Trade Marks, Mumbaie'

4. Per corfira, learned counsel for respondent Nos'3, 4 and 6 to 1O urged that the direction of the learned Single Judge is in consonance with the law laid down by the Suprerne Court in Board of Waqf, West Bengal v' Anis Fatma Beguma and the l ArR 1974 AP 287 2 2007 (41 ALD !;27 3 (1998) 8 SCC 1 4 (2OtO) t4 scc 588 3 court of hrst instance in relation to all the matters pertaining to Waqf is the Waqf Tribunal and the Civil Court and High Court should not straight away entertain the petition'

5. Learned Senior Counsel for the appellant submits that the aforesaid judgment of Supreme Court in Anis Fatma Begum in relation to Mutawalli and therefore ls (supra) is not distinguishable. 6 The parties have confined their arguments to the extent indicated above and no other point is pressed'

7. The Supreme Court has drawn the curtains on this aspect in its judgment in Anis Fatma Begum (supra), the relevant portion of which reads thus:- The dispute in the present case relates to a wakf' In our opinion, all matters pertaining to wakfs should be filed io the first instance before the Wakf Tribunal constituted under Sectlorr 83 of the Slakf Act, 1995 and should not be entertaifled by the civil court or by the High Court straightaway under Article 226 of tb.e Coastltution of India' It may be mentioned that the Wakf Act, 1995 is a recent parliamentary statute which has constituted a Special Tribunal for deciding disputes relating to wakfs' The obvious purpose of constituting such a Tribunal was that a lot of cases relating to wakfs were being hled in the courts in India and they were 4 occupying a lot of time of all the courts in tl.e country which resulted in increase in pendency o[ cases in the courts. Hence, a Special Tribunal has been constituted for deciding such matters. 8 Section 83(1) of the Wakf Act, 1995 states: "83. Constitutiort of tribunals, etc._( l ) Ttre State Government shall, by notification in tfre dfficlai G;;i;, constitute as many tribunals as it maj. think fit, for i;; determination of any dispute, question or othe:: matter to a wakf or wakf property under this Act arld r€lating dehne the local limits and luriidiction ,ra.. tt," e.t o? each of such Tribunals."

9. Section 84 of the Act states: -T>ib-unal to hold proceedlngs expeditiouslg d.nd "-84. to_ furnish to the parties copies oj its aeciJion.l Whenever an application is made to i tribunal for ihe determination of any dispute, question or other matter relating to a wakf or walrf propert5r it shall hold its proceedings as expeditiously as possibie and shall as soon as practicable, on the conclusion of the hearing of such matter give its decision in writing and lurnish "" .opy oi such decision to each of the partie; to the dispute.,,

10. Thus, the Wakf Tribunal can decide all disputt:s, questions or olher matters relating to a wakf or wakf propert\.. The words an dispute , question or glLher matters relatin to a wakf or wakf proDe rt'y'' a_re, ln our oprnlon, words of very wide connotation Any dispute, question or other matters whatsoever ald in whatever manner which arises relating to a wakf or rvakf property cal be decided by the Wakf Tribunal. The word "wakf has treen defrned in Section 3({ of the Wakf Act, 1995 and hence once r:he property is found to be a wakf property as defined in Section 3l{, then arry dispute, question or other matter relating to it should be agitated beforr: the Wakf Tribunal.

11. Under Section 83(S) of the Wakf Act zrJl powers of the civil court under 1995 the Tribunal the Corle of Civil tr, 5 Procedure, and hence it has also powers under Order 39 Rules l, 2 atd 2-A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 to grart temporarJr injunctions and enforce such injunctions. Hence, a full-fledged remedy is available to any party if there is aly dispute, question or other matter relating to a wakf or wakf property." (Emphasis supplied) I I

8. A ptain reading of the above paragraphs arrd, more particularly, the highlighted portion shows that the Supreme Court, in no uncertain terms, made it clear that in relation to all the matters pertaining to Waqf, the Court of first instance should be the Waqf Tribunal and the High Court and the Civil Court should not straightaway entertain the petition. In view of this binding judgment, considering the disputes relating to Waqf, the judgment of Whirlpool Corporation (supra) is of no assistance to the appellant. So far the judgments of the Andhra Pradesh High Court cited by the learned Senior Counsel for the appellant in Mohd. Hidyathulla (supra) and Md. Saleem Ur Rahman (supra) are concerned, both the judgments were passed before ttle binding judgment of the Supreme Court in Anis Fatma Begum (supra) was pronounced. Thus, in view of the dicta in Anis Fatma 6 Begum (supra), no fault can be found in the order ol- the learned Single Judge relegating the appellant to the Waqf Tribunal.

9.. Hence, the admission is declined and the Writ Appeai is dismissed. No order as to costs Miscelletneous petitions pending, if any, shall stand closed SD/.I. NAGA LAKSHMI R REGISIR4 nFRUTY ,.f Urbr-rou orrrce To, //TRUE COPY//

1. One CC to SRt. MD ABDUL MATEEN QURESH| ,Advocate [OpUCl 2. Two CCs to (3p FOR SOCIAL Wet_FnnE ,Hlqh dourr. tor tne State of ^ Telan_gana at Hyderabad [OUT] 3. One CC to SRt. MOHD. lSMAtL. Advocate tOpUCl 1 9ne CC to SRt. MOHD. AS|F AMJAD, Adv6cate 1OeUC1 5. Two CD Copies BM s R ;l ,1 l I HIGH COURT DATED:1210212025 JUDGMENT WA.No.827 of 2024 sH ({o a '-l o 2 5 :EB'2{25 z a * .SEo * cT 9O DISMISSING THE WRIT APPEAL WITHOUT COSTS r4d W@