Plaintiffs failed on all counts: HC on Dawoodi Bohra succession suit

The Bombay high court on Wednesday said that the late Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin and his eldest son Syedna Taher Fakhruddin had failed to prove their claims

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday said that the late Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin and his eldest son Syedna Taher Fakhruddin had failed to prove their claims that they were the 53rd and 54th Dai Al-Mutlaqs or spiritual leaders of the 1.5 million-strong Dawoodi Bohra community. “Likelihood, probability, balance, preponderance, prudence. The plaintiff fails on all counts,” Justice Gautam Patel said while dismissing the contentious lawsuit.

Mumbai, India - 24 Mar, 2017: Dawoodi Bohra Community Syedna Taher Fakhruddin, addressing a press conference, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, 24 Mar, 2017. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT)

The original plaintiff, Syedna Qutbuddin, had staked a claim to the title, stating that the 52nd Dai, his half-brother Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin, had conferred secret “nass” on him on December 10, 1965, the day he was appointed maznoon or second-in-command in the Dawoodi Bohra spiritual hierarchy. He said he was told in a private conversation that he would succeed Syedna Burhanuddin and claimed that the 52nd Dai had given him his own ring but asked him to keep it a secret.

Justice Patel, however, refused to believe the claims, as he found them “ambiguous” and on their own not proving conferment or intention to confer “nass”. “We will never know if the 52nd Dai ever said in private the words to the Original Plaintiff… We do not even know if they met in private. There is no record of either; in itself odd from a community of inveterate record-keepers,” the judge said.

As regards the “ring”, the court said it could not be accepted as corroborative evidence of conferment of “nass” and in any case, a document of three months later indicated that the ruby ring gifted by the 51st Dai to the 52nd Dai was still with the latter.

The court held that Syedna Qutbuddin’s rival, Syedna Saifuddin, on the other hand, proved that he was validly conferred “nass” by his father, the 52nd Dai, on January 28, 1969, in the presence of three witnesses: the evidence was a notebook entry in the handwriting of one witness, another entry maintained by another witness and corroborative evidence. The court said he also proved conferment of “nass” on him later in 2005 and twice more in 2011.

The lawsuit was originally filed by Syedna Qutbuddin in March 2014, who claimed that despite being conferred “nass” in December 1965, Syedna Saifuddin, the son of the 52nd Dai, had announced himself as the 53rd Dai after the demise of his father in January 2014, and taken control of the community and its properties. Syedna Qutbuddin had sought a declaration that he was the one entitled to control the properties and assets of the Dawoodi Bohra community.

After Syedna Qutbuddin died on March 30, 2016, his eldest son, Syedna Fakhruddin, was allowed by the court to be substituted as plaintiff. Syedna Fakhruddin too sought a declaration that he was the 54th Dai, claiming that he was conferred “nass” by his father before his demise.