Question

Waqf property

Shivendra Pratap Singh

Advocate

High Court Lucknow

Property

Reading Time:

Advised on 9 Nov, 2015

There is a waqf property which is rented on Rs 5 per month to Moulana ******* Tenant want to take absolute possession over the rented property. In this course, he attempted on many forged documents but ultimately he fails. He filed a case before the waqf tribunal for the title of the property. I filed a case before waqf tribunal for his eviction. The case is admitted by the tribunal but my case is dismissed on the ground that tribunal has no jurisdiction to hear this case. Both cases are in respect of same property but one is accepted ant other is rejected, I want to file a writ before the High Court please suggest. Thanks in advance to all judges and lawyers.

Section 83 of the Waqf Act 1995 provides rules for constitution of waqf tribunal, it is clear from the section that state government shall by notification on official gazette constitute a waqf tribunal for the determination of all the disputes regarding waqf property. And section 85 of the said puts a bar on the jurisdiction of the civil court in the determination of such disputes.

Thus it is clear that if any dispute arises regarding the dispute of waqf property the only tribunal has jurisdiction to hear. Your tenants right is directly connected with the title of the waqf property so only waqf tribunal has jurisdiction to hear. But in your case dispute of tenancy is another and distinct matter from waqf property.

The tenancy is connected with the civil right of the tenant, he cannot be evicted from the rented property in contravention of due process of law i.e. rent control act. However, the property belongs to waqf but disputed right is a civil right so it is purely a civil nature suit which shall exclusively be heard by the civil court [West Bengal Waqf board vs Anis Fatma Begum AIR 2010 SC].

So you should avoid filing any writ in High Court but you should file a regular suit in civil court.