Mumbai: Minara Masjid caught in legal tussle over Waqf board claims

As Muslims oppose the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 and the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examines it, the iconic Minara Masjid at Mohammed Ali Road fights its own battle to stay out of the control of the Maharashtra State Board of Waqf or Waqf Board. While the Waqf Board claims that Minara Masjid and other properties the Minara Masjid Trust manages are Waqf, the Masjid Trust denies it. It maintains neither the over-a-century-old Minara Masjid nor its other properties are Waqf.The trust has challenged the Waqf Board's orders, including the latest (July 26, 2024) where the Board alleged that Minara Masjid Trustees illegally entered a lease agreement with 83 tenants of the Trust building near the J J Hospital. The Board not only wants the 83 tenants to vacate the properties, but also an FIR registered against them and the four trustees for alleged "breach of Section 52 A of the Waqf Act 1995." This Section says that the penalty for alienation of Waqf property is punishable with rigorous imprisonment up to two years. The trust has challenged it in the High Court, which has given a stay till September 18."We are more concerned about the 83 families living in a dilapidated building. We wanted to redevelop the property through the Mhada scheme in 2012 for which tenants' consent was registered with the collector of Mumbai and agreements were free of cost," said Abdul Wahab Latif, a trustee. He added that, since the Trust was registered with the charity commissioner, permission of the charity commissioner was also obtained. The agreement said that, in case of disapproval from the charity commissioner, the agreement shall be void. And the project has been on hold since 2015 as the trust became a respondent in the Supreme Court, which the Waqf Board had approached after it lost the case in the Bombay High Court.Wahab added that each tenant who currently lives in the tiny cramped 80 sq ft room was supposed to get a flat of 400 sq ft as per the Mhada scheme of redevelopment.However, the Waqf Board claims it has only followed the directions received from the Supreme Court. "Minara Masjid is one of several properties which were declared Waqf after the Waqf Act 1995 was notified in Mumbai in 2003. The Supreme Court in its order of October 20, 2022 wanted all respondents to approach the Waqf Board and file their objections within eight weeks of the order. Instead of submitting its objections to the Waqf Board's headquarters in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad), the trust deposited its documents in the Board's Mumbai office," said Waqf Board CEO Juned Sayyad.Wahab countered it by referring to state minority department minister Abdul Sattar's public statement where he reportedly said: "You do not need to go to Aurangabad for Waqf works. Submit your documents in the Mumbai office." "Why was the Mumbai office opened if we cannot submit our papers here? The CEO has been misguided and is unnecessarily harassing us with notices and orders," alleged Latif.The trustees also asked that, if Minara Masjid Trust was registered with Waqf Board in 2007 as the Board claims, why did no CEOs from 2007 to 2023 send notice to it?The trust's representative Advocate Nisar Ghatte refers to the May 11, 2012 Supreme Court order defining the difference between Waqf and a Muslim Trust. The SC order said: "The basic difference is that a Waqf is where there is permanent dedication of properties to God almighty and the dedicator has no right to it. But a Muslim Trust is where the properties are not dedicated to God almighty but to the trustees."