The exclusive jurisdiction of the Waqf Tribunal under the amended Waqf Act, 2013, is limited to disputes specified in Sections 6 and 7 of the Act, and does not extend to eviction suits where no such dispute is raised.

Samapti Chatterjee, J

1. The petitioner/defendant has filed the present revisional application assailing the Order No.11 dated 14th August, 2015 passed by the Learned Judge, 3rd Bench, Small Causes Court at Calcutta in Ejectment Suit No.250 of 2014.

2. The point to be determined, whether the Waqf Tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction to try and determine any suit thereby excluding the jurisdiction of Civil Court to try or entertain any dispute?

3. The facts of the case in brief is as follows :

The petitioner/defendant is the tenant under Touleyet Waqf estate in respect of one shop room situated on the ground floor of premises No.7A Abdul Halim Lane, Kolkata-7000016 at a monthly rental of Rs.150/-payable according to the english calendar months. The plaintiff filed Ejectment suit being Ejectment Suit No.250 of 2014 before the Learned Judge, 3rd Bench, Small Causes Court at Calcutta. The petitioner/defendant filed an application under Order 7 Rule 11 read with Section 151 of Civil Procedure Code for rejection of the application on the ground that in view of the amendment of the Waqf Act, suit for eviction against any tenant in respect of any Waqf property ought to be tried by the Waqf tribunal exclusively. The Civil Court has no jurisdiction to tri and entertain the suit for eviction.

The said application was rejected by the impugned order dated 14th August, 2015.

4. Mr. Supratick Shyamal, learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner/defendant submitted that after the amendment of the Waqf Act, the learned Civil Court has no jurisdiction to try, entertain and determine any dispute between the landlord and tenant.

5. Mr. Shyamal drew my attention to the Section 85 of the Waqf property which is quoted below :

“Section 85-Bar of jurisdiction of Civil Court, revenue Court and any other authority-No suit or other legal proceeding shall lie in any Civil Court, revenue Court and any other authority in respect of any dispute, question or other matter relating to any waqf, waqf property or other matter which is required by or under this Act to the determined by a Tribunal.”

In support of his contention Mr. Shyamal relied on a decision of this Hon’ble Court reported in (2015) 1 WBLR (Cal) Page-455 (M/S. Hooghly Building & Investment Co. Ltd vs Janab Syed Asghar Hussain Ismail & Ors) Paragraph-11 which is quoted below :-

“Para-11- From the above quoted observation it appears that on the one hand, the learned Court has said that Court has no jurisdiction to determine the question whether the suit property is a thika land or the defendant is thika tenant or not but, at the same time, the Court has finally concluded that the suit is not barred under the provisions of Thika Tenancy Act. Be that as it may, the conclusion of the Court and the finding made before such conclusion are contradictory rather conclusion is not based on the finding and, therefore, I have no option but to hold that the impugned order cannot be sustained and the same is hereby set aside and is remanded back to the learned Trial Court for a fresh decision., on the application filed by the defendant/petitioner under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure. I remit the case back to the Trial Court for deciding the application under Order VII Rule 11, CPC on the basis of the averments in the plaint after affording an opportunity of being heard to the parties in accordance with law.”

Therefore in conclusion Mr. Shyamal contended that this revisional application should be allowed by directing the Learned Court below to refer the said suit before the Waqf tribunal.

6. Per contra, Ms. Sharda Parmar, learned Advocate appearing for the plaintiff/opposite party strongly submitted that there is no absolute bar mentioned in the amendment of Waf Act, 2013.

7. Ms Parmar further vehemently urged that by the amendment of 2013 has not taken away the jurisdiction of Civil Procedure Code, therefore, there is no absolute bar to file Ejectment suit before the appropriate Civil Court inste