HC allows Dawoodi Bohras to resume development of community’s Baramati property

The petition said the community in 1952 purchased 10700 square metres of land in Baramati and got it registered in the name of the Dawoodi Bohra Jammat Baramati

The Bombay high court has stayed an order issued by the Baramati Municipal Council, which had stopped construction on a piece of land owned by the Dawoodi Bohra trust in Baramati.

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A division bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Kamal Khata passed this interim order on Monday while hearing a petition filed by Dawoodi Bohra community leader Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin in April 2022.

The petition said the community had in 1952 purchased 10,700 square metres of land in Baramati and got it registered in the name of the Dawoodi Bohra Jammat Baramati, a registered trust, with Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin as its sole trustee.

The community had constructed a mosque and several commercial and residential buildings on the property for the benefit of economically weaker sections, the plea said. As the buildings became old and dilapidated the trust decided to redevelop the property and in March 2021 obtained the necessary permissions from the municipal council.

Work started, and a substantial portion of construction was completed when the municipal council issued a stop work notice in April 2022. This came a month after the Divisional Wafk officer, Pune, wrote to the municipal council claiming that the property belonged to the Wakf Board and could not have been developed without its prior approval.

Senior advocate Shyam Mehta and advocate Tushar Sonawane, who represented the community leader, said the state government had in 2016 issued a notification that all properties such as mosques, burial grounds, dargahs and heritage homes held by Muslim trusts would be governed by the provisions of the Wakf Act, 1995.

The Wakf officer claimed ownership over the property because of the mosque, but as per the Wakf Act and the 2016 notification only the mosque could be considered as a Wakf property and not the remaining portions and the buildings, the lawyer said.

The lawyer had earlier informed the court that the trust had in 2018 challenged an entry by the taluka inspector of land record changing the status of the trust land to a Wakf property in the revenue record. The appeal is pending before the additional collector.

The lawyer had argued that the property was purchased for the trust and not for a religious purpose - a masjid, dargah, kabrastan or a heritage home, and, therefore, the provisions of the Waqf Act did not apply to it.

The bench found substance in the petitioner’s argument and stayed the stop work order. “There can be no dispute that when the trust purchased the property in 1952, the Waqf Act, 1995, was not in existence, and nor was the Waqf Board,” the bench said and allowed the trust to proceed with the construction.