Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 6: High Court of J&K and Ladakh has upheld the decision of Muslim Waqf Board to take over a shrine situated in Ganderbal district citing the shrine in question is notified under Waqf’s Act.
The appellant-Haji Abdul Ahad Akhoon claiming to be the owner of the land on which the shrine-Ziyarat Syed Jaffer, Ziyarat Syed Rehman, Ziyarat Syed ul Hajra is built, challenged the action of taking over the management of the shrine by the Waqf Board before the court by way of a writ petition. The single judge however, dismissed the plea.
The judgment of writ court has been challenged in the instant appeal on the ground that the Ziyarat/Dargah in question is situated on the land recorded in the ownership of the predecessor-in-interest of appellant-Akhoon and, therefore, the respondent-Waqf Board, or for that matter the Government, is not competent to take over the Ziyarat/Dargah, that too, without following due process of law.
The Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar said the Waqf would mean permanent dedication by a person professing Islam of any property movable or immovable for any purpose recognized by Muslim Law or usage as religious, pious or charitable.
“It would also include a Waqf by user, such as, Masjid, Idgah, Dargah, Khankah, Maqbara, Graveyard, Grave, Rauza, Mausoleum, Takia, Sarai, Yatim Khana, Madrasa etc. It is, thus, quite evident that Waqf can be created by permanent dedication by a person professing Islam with respect to his property for any religious, pious or charitable purposes recognized by muslim law”, the DB clarified.
The court further added that the properties like Masjid, Dargah etc. by virtue of their user as such are also Waqf and no formal declaration to declare such properties as Waqf is required under the Act of 1978.
The court said that one or more “Special Officers” appointed by the Government by a notification in the Government Gazette are empowered to make surveys of the Waqf in the area in which the Act is enforced.
“In the instant case, when the survey of Waqf in the district of Ganderbal was conducted by the Special Officer appointed by the Government, nobody including the appellants ever raised any dispute with regard to the nature of the property. As a matter of fact, the appellants cannot raise any dispute with regard to the nature of the property in question, for the reason that it is, as per own admission of the appellants, the property taken over by the Waqf Board, is a Ziyarat”, reads the judgment.
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