A society, as a juristic person, must be represented by the appropriate persons to maintain a writ petition under the Wakf Act, lacking locus standi otherwise.

ORDER:

The present Writ Petition is filed by the petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking the following relief:

“…..issue a writ, more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the 2nd respondent in issuing its order in F.No.05/KDP/K/GOPAVARAM/2022, dated 14.10.2022 in appointing the unofficial respondent Nos.4 and 5 and others as illegal, arbitrary and against the law and principles of natural justice and consequently to quash the said order of the 2nd respondent and to suspend the order of the 2nd respondent in F.No.05/KDP/K/ GOPAVARAM/2022,dated 14.10.2022 pending disposal of the above writ petition…..”

2. The case of the petitioner, in brief, is that the petitioner society was established prior to 1999 with an object to establish a mosque and accordingly the president of the society purchased Ac.0.14 ¼ cents under an agreement of sale dated 03.06.1999 and later sold Ac.0.03 cents out of it to pay the sale consideration. Later, the society with its own money and also by collecting donations constructed Masjid-A-Noor in the said Ac.0.11 ¼ cents site including compound wall and ever since the society has been looking after the affairs of the said Masjid. Later, realizing necessity, the society got itself registered with the Registrar of Societies, Proddatur as Masjid-A-Noor Committee on 28.02.2017 and later it was renewed on 20.11.2021. The society paid salaries to Imam and Mouzans of the Masjid till 26.11.2017 and thereafter the 2nd respondent began to sanction honorarium to Imam and Mouzans. Having come to know that the respondent Nos. 4 and 5 were collecting donations from public in the name of petitioner society by impersonating the petitioner society as Noor Masjid Committee, the petitioner made a representation to the Registrar of Societies, Proddatur appraising the facts and requesting not to register any society. As some unscrupulous persons of the community and the 3rd respondent started laying adverse claim against the society, the petitioner made a representation dated 17.01.2022 to the 3rd respondent to stop depositing honorarium, but the 3rd respondent did not stop. It is the further case of the petitioner that, they recently learnt that the 3rd respondent addressed a letter to the Branch Manager, A.P.Grameena Bank, Gopavaram Branch to permit the respondent Nos. 4 and 5 to operate the account of Masjid-E-Noor. The respondent Nos. 4 and 5 and their men started obstructing the musallies from approaching the Masjid stating that they were appointed as Managing Committee and on 01.11.2022, the 3rd respondent proclaimed outside the mosque that the respondent Nos.4, 5 and others are the new Managing Committee and affixed the impugned proceedings of the 2nd respondent on the wall of the mosque. The petitioner society was formed as per law the respondent Nos.2 and 3 have no right to appoint a new Managing Committee and at the instance of the MLA, Proddatur, the respondent Nos. 2 and 3, issued impugned proceedings appointing a bogus committee. When the petitioner society is in existence and has been the Managing committee, the respondent Nos.2 and 3 cannot appoint any new committee without following the due process of law and that too in violation of principles of natural justice. Hence, this writ petition has been filed.

3. The second respondent filed counter affidavit denying the averments of the writ affidavit, interalia contending that, the petitioner being a registered society is a juridical person but not a natural person, has no locus standi to file this writ petition and on this sole ground the writ petition is liable to be dismissed. The Waqf Board is an autonomous body to appoint Managing Committee to manage the affairs of the waqf institution and accordingly it had appointed the Managing Committee and pursuantly Section 18 of the waqf Act authorizes them to operate the bank account and the affairs of the Masjid. Hence prayed to dismiss the writ petition.

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