Waqf tribunal seeks action against lawyers

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat State Waqf Tribunal has asked the Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG) to take legal action against four advocates for their allegedly inappropriate behaviour during a hearing. The lawyers had accused the tribunal members of recusing themselves from the case because two of them belonged to the Sunni sect.
The tribunal was hearing a dispute regarding Hazrat Maulana Mehboob Dargah, Masjid and Kabrastan Trust in Anavada village of Patan district.
The members of the Sunni sect had been claiming that the management of the trust comprised the members of the Shia sect.
They alleged that the trust was taken over by the members of Dawoodi Bohra community and the management should be handed over to the Sunnis.
During an online hearing on January 18, lawyers of the respondents who represented the Bohras, and their religious leader, entered into heated arguments with the tribunal members.
One of the lawyers, Manish Shah, stated that the Waqf Board hears the matter in a better manner than the tribunal.
This did not go down well with the tribunal, which recorded that the lawyer alleged that the tribunal does not hear the matter in accordance with law.
It also held that three other lawyers — V R Agrawal, Rajesh Modi and Kaiser Merchant — behaved in an improper manner during the hearing.
It stated that Agrawal and Modi had argued that the tribunal members – chairman AI Shaikh and one of the two members Rizwan Qadri – are Sunni and therefore they were in haste to hear the case. They submitted that the case pertained to a dispute between Sunni and Shia sects and therefore these members should not hear it.
The tribunal also recorded that the other senior lawyers had maintained the decorum and insisted that lawyers should not make such submissions.
Regarding the dispute over the trust, the tribunal quashed Waqf Board’s decision granting approval to enter names of members of Dawoodi Bohra community in the trust. The tribunal observed that a Sunni trust cannot be changed to Shia trust and vice versa according to the Waqf Act. The tribunal was also not pleased with the board official for overreaching his brief and recommended action against him too.