SUBRAT SHANKAR BHADURI Vs. BIHAR STATE SUNNI WAQF BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application has been placed before me on a difference having arisen between two learned Judges of this Court in respect of the relief claimed by the petitioners by way of quashing an order passed by the Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board (hereinafter referred to as 'the Board') under Section 36-B of the Waqf Act of 1954 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act').

(2.) It is not necessary to state at any length the facts giving rise to the present application, for, they have been set out in the judgment of my learned brother, Ali Ahmad, J. It will be sufficient to state that the petitioners claim certain lands to have been transferred to them by exchange in the year 1965 by some persons, viz., Ghazanfar Raza Choudhary, Qaiser Raza Choudhary and their mother. These lands are said to have been originally settled with those persons by way of raiyati settlement between the years 1923 and 1927. These lands are alleged to have been the bakasht lands comprised in the tauzi of which the grandfather of the aforesaid Ghazanafar and Quaiser, was the proprietor and in respect of which he had created a Waqf. The Board treating the property as a waqf property and treating it as one transferred to, the petitioners in violation of the provisions of Section 36-A of the Act, asked the Collector in accordance with Section 36-B to get possession of the property delivered to it (Annexure '7'). Accordingly the Sub-Divisional Officer issued an order to that effect (Annexure '8').

(3.) It appears that both the learned Judges who heard this application, namely, Mr. Justice Shambhu Prasad Singh and Mr. Justice S. Ali Ahmad, were agreed on the point that the Sub-Divisional Officer had no jurisdiction to issue the order aforesaid and as such they directed issuance of a writ quashing that order. In respect of the order of the Board (Annexure-7), however, the two learned Judges, as stated earlier, came to different conclusions. Ahmad, J., rejected the prayer for quashing this, whereas S.P. Singh, J., allowed the prayer.