By Asia Samachar | India |
A gurdwara in Delhi will continue to function as it is when India’s highest court dismissed a claim by Delhi Waqf Board that the property had been designated as a waqf property.
On July 4, the Supreme Court dismissed the board’s claim, pointing out that a gurdwara was already functioning there, reported the Express News Service.
The petition was filed challenging a 2010 order of the Delhi High Court that held that the property in east Delhi’s Shahdara was being used as a gurdwara since 1947 and the Waqf board could not establish it to be a “waqf property”, according to the report.
The Delhi Waqf Board is a statutory body of the Government of Delhi, initially appointed under the Indian Wakf Act 1954; now the Waqf Act 1995.
It exercises control over Islamic mosques, dargahs, mausoleums, khankahs, madrasas, hospitals, and any other Islamic waqfs. The primary function of the Waqf Board is to ensure its properties and revenue are appropriately managed and used. The board manages, regulates, and protects the waqf properties by constituting district committees, Tehsil committees, and committees for the individual institutions, according to its website.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs estimates the total value of immovable waqf assets at US$14.22 billion, spread out across 30 states and Union Territories.
ENS reported that the counsel appearing for the board said it had filed a suit for possession against the defendant Hira Singh, now deceased. The plea claimed that the property in dispute, i.e., a mosque at Oldenpur Village, Shahadra, is waqf property and has been used as a waqf since time immemorial.
Justices Sanjay Karol, who sat together with S C Sharma, said, “not some kind of, (but) a proper functioning gurdwara. Once there is a gurdwara, let it be. A religious structure is already functioning there. You should yourself relinquish that claim, you see.”
Opposing the board’s claim over the property, defendant Hira Singh had contended that it is not a waqf property and that the owner, Mohd Ahsaan, had sold it to him in 1953. He said the premises in dispute was being used as a gurdwara, the report added.
The bench said the evidence shows that the gurdwara at Shahdara has been functioning at the suit property since 1947.
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