MUMBAI: Some members of the Maharashtra State Board of Waqfs are among several persons who were taken aback by the 11th hour attempt to replace attorney general K K Venugopal and lawyers assisting him in an important, decade-long case in the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, the waqf board’s advocate on record Shashibhushan P Adgaonkar said the board had changed its lawyers, leading to Venugopal complaining it amounts to contempt of court.
Wajahat Mirza, MLC and board member, said on Wednesday the board had passed a resolution on July 31 and written to the advocate on record on August 1, requesting him to continue with Venugopal. “Don’t want to say much as the matter is sub judice but the board had told the AOR to continue with Mr Venugopal as AG,” said Mirza.
The SC is to decide whether a Muslim trust automatically comes under the supervision the waqf board. There are two sets of Muslim properties owned by trusts: those registered with the charity commission and those under the waqf board.
“The trusts which conduct religious activities are waqf properties. There are trusts whose purpose is, say, educational and they may be registered with the charity commission,” explained Sohail Khandwani, managing trustee of Mahim Dargah and a trustee of Haji Ali Dargah.
Advocate Yusuf Muchchala, who represented trusts held by Anjuman-i-Islam and the Dawoodi Bohras when the waqf board in 2002 asked all Muslim trusts to get registered, said it is a valid demand to keep joining the waqf board optional. “I am sorry to say the board is a den of corruption and its members are political appointees. It becomes very difficult for the trustees to develop and rent out such properties at market value,” said Muchchala.