Bombay High court dissolves Wakf board formed in 2004 by state

The Bombay high court on Wednesday dissolved the Wakf Board which the state had formed in 2004. The court stayed the order for 10 weeks allowing the board to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

A division bench of Justice DK Deshmukh and Justice Anoop Mohta struck down the notification of January 1, 2002, on the ground that the board was constituted without following the necessary procedure.

As per the Wakf Act, if the state wants to constitute a board to govern wakfs (Muslim charitable trust properties), it is required to set up a separate Shia wakf board, if the number or valuation of properties of Shia wakfs exceeds 15% of the total number of wakfs across the state or valuation of their properties, respectively.

Accordingly, the state should conduct a survey of all the wakfs.
The state government had in 1997 appointed a commissioner to undertake the survey.

However, a single (Shia-Sunni) Wakf Board was constituted before the survey report was submitted. The survey report was submitted to the government on January 31, 2002.

A bunch of Muslim trusts had challenged the setting up of the wakf board, saying mandatory procedure was not followed. The state had argued that it had the discretion either to constitute a combined board or have separate boards for Shia and Sunni trusts.

The court took into consideration that the state Wakf Board has only two members. Under the law, the board should comprise at least seven members apart from the chairperson. “A board having only two members cannot be said to be properly constituted.

Therefore, we hold that the constitution of the Wakf Board of Maharashtra is not in accordance with the law,” said the court.

The HC discarded the submission. The court ordered that wakfs will be governed by the Bombay Public Trusts Act till a duly constituted wakf board is set up.