Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 4 High Court held the management and entitlement of two famous Shrines of Kishtwar as Jammu and Kashmir Wakf property and rejected the claim of its caretakers.
Justice Sanjay Dhar held that the two famous shrines Ziarat Farid-ud-Din Sahib and Ziarat Assrar-ud-Din Sahib in Kishtwar are the properties of Wakf and their management under the jurisdiction of Wakf Board as valid.
The matter was the dispute relating to management and entitlement to the properties pertaining to two shrines and the petitioners claim to be their Sajjada Nasheens and lay claim to the properties attached to them.
The board, however, contended that the two shrines have not devolved upon the petitioners and they can be described only as Managers and the copies of revenue extracts clearly reflect that the properties belong to the shrines and not to the petitioners in their individual capacity.
“The petitioners have not succeeded in showing that the two ziarats and the properties attached thereto do not qualify as wakaf property and that the same was the personal property of the petitioners and their ancestors. It is abundantly clear that the entire property in question is wakaf property”, Justice Dhar said.
The court however made it clear that the residential house which the petitioners have on the wakf property shall be treated as on lease as per the directions of appellate authority as the same has acquired the finality
The case of the petitioners was that right of Sajjadu Nasheen is their hereditary right and that both these shrines are their exclusive properties and they have exclusive right of collection of offerings and they are also responsible to maintain these two shrines from their own incomes as such, these shrines cannot be governed by Wakafs Act because these properties are personal properties of the petitioners, which have devolved upon them from their forefathers.
The court has been informed that the area of land measuring 37 kanals, which is claimed to the personal property by the petitioners, is wakaf land and the same was erroneously gifted by one of the mohtamims in favour of his relative but the mutation based on this gift deed was rejected by the revenue authority. This shows that the said land is wakaf property.
“The petitioners are permitted to occupy the residential houses, which they have constructed upon the land of the two Ziarats as lessees of wakaf property in accordance with the directions contained in impugned order dated 30.04.1982 passed by the appellate authority”, the court concluded.
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