P.B. Mukharji, J. - (1.)This is an application by Sheikh Abdur Rahman against the Commissioner of Wakfs and the Inspector of Wakfs, West Bengal under Art. 226 of the Constitution for a Writ of Mandamus and Certiorari quashing the proceeding of the Commissioner of Wakfs by which he purported to make an appointment of an Administrative Committee under section 27 (2) (iii) of the Bengal Wakf Act.
(2.)The petition has a long and chequered career. It was first moved before Sinha, J., who dismissed the petition in limine. Against that order of dismissal the petitioner went up in appeal where a Division Bench of this Court set aside the order of dismissal passed by Sinha, J. All these proceedings have taken seven years since their inception in June, 1956.
(3.)The petitioner is the present Mutwalli of a Wakf estate in the district of Maldah. This Wakf estate is duly enlisted in the office of the Commissioner of Wakfs, West Bengal. It is an ancient Wakf created by a registered deed as early as in the years 1858 and 1864. It is expressly provided in the Wakf deed that the Wakf would be administered by the heirs and successors of the donors so long as there would be any one of them alive and that no outsiders should be allowed to interfere with its management. This is a significant provision in the Wakf Deed. There is no denial of this fact which has been pleaded in paragraph 2 of the petition. The petitioner is the heir of the donors line and succeeded to the office of the Mutwalli and his name was enrolled as such by the Commissioner of Wakf in the year 1949. Accounts submitted by the petitioner had been audited and passed from time to time by the Wakf authorities concerned and there is on record no complaint by the Wakf authorities about them.