Uttarakhand HC orders audit of Piran Kaliyar accounts for past 20 yrs

NAINITAL: The

Uttarakhand high court

(HC) has ordered the

Piran Kaliyar sufi shrine

management to audit its accounts for the past 20 years within six months and asked the

dargah board

to form a committee for the same within three weeks. The HC on Thursday was hearing a

public interest litigation

(PIL) — filed by one

Anwar Jamal Kazmi

, a resident of Roorkee — seeking the court's direction to order a probe into alleged "gross financial irregularities".

The division bench of justices Rajiv Sharma and Sharad Kumar Sharma also directed the district magistrate of Haridwar to appoint a chartered accountant and constitute a five-member audit committee to investigate land allotment and management of guest houses at the shrine apart from other affairs of the dargah. The court said the members of the audit committee, to be headed by the DM, should be persons of wisdom, socially recognised, honest, having vast knowledge of Islam and having at least a post-graduate degree or its equivalent, beside the chartered accountant. “Under these circumstances, where, prima facie, the set of allegations seems to be correct in the wider interest of the shrine, this court feels to carve out a case of 'continuous mandamus' for the management of the shrine whereby this court deems it appropriate to appoint a committee of independent persons, including experts in financial matters, that is, a chartered accountant who would conduct a special audit into the financial affairs of the shrine for last 20 years and will prepare the books of account of income and expenditure made and the authorities under whom the expenditure was allocated and used," stated the high court order.

The HC said each month’s development report will have to be submitted to the registrar of the high court by the DM, and the first report has to be submitted within four weeks thereafter, informing as to what steps have been taken by him in this regard in a sealed cover.

The HC bench said that the audit report “would be submitted to the court within a period of six months from today (Thursday) for scrutiny, as to who has to be held responsible for mis-utilisation of the finances of the shrine.”

The HC also directed that the committee must maintain the books of accounts under the law for each financial year, and that the committee “would also mark out the officials responsible so that this court may further take appropriate remedial punitive action against them on both administrative and criminal side.”

Elaborating its order, the HC stated that the committee will have to probe various matters, including accounting of cash books, allotment of land, period of allotment and rent due and received, allotment of shops near the railway station, disbursement of payments, maintenance of guest houses of the dargah and under what authority the payments were made.

The court also pointed out that Rs 102 crore outstanding dues are yet to be recovered for 2010-11 and Rs 162 crore for 2011-12 by the shrine board.

The high court directed the district magistrate, who is the administrator of the dargah, to be the chairman of the audit committee and ensure the appointment of a chartered accountant of not less than 20 years of professional standing to investigate the financial affairs of the shrine. The HC also asked the district magistrate to ensure that the Wakf Board deposit a sum of Rs 25 lakh tentatively before the registry of the court to meet the day-to-day expenses likely to be incurred while carrying out the investigation.

The Piran Kaliyar shrine houses the dargah of 13th-century Sufi saint Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir Kalyari. The shrine, built by sultan Ibrahim Lodhi of Delhi, is revered by both Hindus and Muslims.

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.