Lord Sinha:-

This litigation arises in connexion with an ancient mosque standing on a portion of holding 221 in the Government Khas Mehal of Dihi Panchannagram, near Calcutta. In a proceeding under Reg. 2 of 1819 between the Government of India as plaintiff and one Syed Miron Munshi of Kalinga as defendant, the whole holding, then 3 bighas 11 cottas and 3 chhataks in area (a portion has since been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act), was declared by the revenue authorities to be revenue-free as property dedicated long ago to religious uses, i.e., a wakf, of which the said Miron Munshi was the then mutwali. The mosque stood on a portion of this area and the rest of it was let out to tenants, the rents being appropriated for the expenses of the mosque.

Mir Miran or Miron Munshi continued to hold this area of land as mutwali of the mosque until his death about 70 years ago, and after him his son, Sheikh Mahommad Jan, succeeded him as mutwali. Mahomed Jan died about 50 years ago, and thereafter his widow, Rukia Bibi, assumed the office of mutwali. On the 27th October 1902, she executed a deed whereby she purported to nominate her son Mir Ramjan Ali as her successor in the mutwalishi