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The Supreme Court mentioned the Delhi Waqf Board ought to have relinquished its declare as soon as data confirmed {that a} spiritual construction has been performing on the land since 1948
The Supreme Court of India.
A bench of justices Sanjay Karol and Satish Chandra Sharma, sitting throughout the partial courtroom working days, handed the order whereas deciding a 2012 attraction filed by the Board, difficult an order of September 24, 2010 by the Delhi excessive courtroom, which held the property to be in possession of late Hira Singh, who had bought the property from Mohammad Ahsan in 1953.
Dismissing the attraction, the courtroom mentioned, “The records show there has been a gurudwara functioning since partition. Once a religious structure is there, you should yourself relinquish your claim.”
The Waqf Board represented by senior advocate Sanjoy Ghose mentioned that the excessive courtroom disturbed the concurrent findings on truth by the trial courtroom, first determined in October 1982, adopted by one other determination in February 1989, each determined within the Board’s favour. He mentioned that the property has been since time immemorial devoted as waqf property and witnesses within the go well with deposed that there was a mosque that existed and “some sort of a gurudwara” got here to be constructed over that.
The bench interjected Ghose and mentioned, “It is not some sort of gurudwara. There is a fully functional gurudwara there,” referring to the location in query situated in village Oldenpur, Shahdara.
The Board had claimed that the property in query has been used as waqf since time immemorial and was notified within the notification of gazette on December 3, 1970 and subsequently corrected by one other notification of April 29, 1978 printed within the Delhi Gazette on May 18, 1978. As per the Waqf Board data, the property in query was notified as “Masjid Takia Babbar Shah”.
The excessive courtroom judgment had determined in favour of late Hira Singh because it concluded, “The defendant (Singh) was admittedly in occupation of this property since 1947-48.” At the identical time, the courtroom had mentioned, “It is also true that the defendant was not able to adduce any document of title to evidence the purchase of this property, yet this does not in any manner benefit the plaintiff (Waqf Board) who has to establish his own case and prove it to enable him to obtain a decree of possession.”
Further, the excessive courtroom famous that although the Board claimed it to be waqf property, no dates got as to from which date the property was getting used as a masjid. “This assumes special relevance as the defendant (Singh) in his written statement had specifically controverted this stand.” The Board had relied on deposition of witnesses who attested to the truth that the mosque was constructed by the Muslims, who had been the homeowners of the property, and the defendant occupied it illegally since 1948.
Further, the excessive courtroom relied upon a 1979 Supreme Court determination in Board of Muslim Waqfs, Rajasthan case the place the highest courtroom held that the place a stranger who’s a non-Muslim and is in possession of a sure property his proper, title and curiosity therein can’t be put in jeopardy merely as a result of the property is included within the checklist printed below the Act. Going by this verdict, the excessive courtroom held that the gazette notification of the property being waqf “would not be binding upon a stranger or a person who does not fall in the category of “person interested in a wakf” as outlined below Section 3(h) of the Act.
Singh had identified that the premises in dispute used as a Gurdwara is being managed by the Gurudwara Managing Committee. It was additional acknowledged that the Waqf Board had previously filed two fits that had been withdrawn within the 12 months 1970 and 1978.
He additional identified below Section 64 of the Limitation Act, a go well with for restoration of possession of property needs to be filed inside 12 years from the date when the proper to sue accrued. In the current case, the Waqf Board filed the go well with in December 1980, which was time barred.
