The Wakf Board has jurisdiction to ask the appellant to have the suit Durga registered and to send the accounts and budgets, despite a validly framed scheme being in force.

JUDGMENT :- This second appeal arises out of a suit filed by the appellant for a declaration that the proceedings dated 9-2-1959 and 26-3-1959, of the respondent, State Wakf Board, requiring the appellant to have the suit Durga and its properties registered, to (submit?) accounts, budgets and returns and threatening prosecution and imposition of penalties otherwise than the Wakf Act are void, illegal and without jurisdiction.

2. Both the courts below have held that the Wakf Board has got jurisdiction to ask the appellant to have the suit Durga registered and to send the accounts and budgets. Hence the second appeal by the aggrieved plaintiff. It is necessary to state a few facts that led to the filing of the suit.

3. It is common case that the properties set out in the plaint and situate at Killai, Chidambaram Taluk, were originally granted by the Nawab to the predecessors-in-title of the appellant. There were other disputes with which we are not concerned now. Finally, a scheme was framed in O. S. No. 10 of 1909 on the file of the Sub Court, Mayuram, according to which trustees were appointed for the suit properties and provisions were made for their management. According to the scheme, the appellant has been sending the budget on the 15th March of every year and had the accounts audited by an auditor appointed by the court. The appellant contends that when a validly framed scheme is in force, the Wakf Board cannot take proceedings under the Wakf Act and call upon the Mutavalli to get the Durga and its properties registered and to send accounts and budgets and returns to it.

4. The Wakf Act has been introduced for the purpose of securing better administration and supervision of Wakf properties. The Act provides that the State Government may appoint for the State a Commissioner of Wakfs for the purpose of making a survey of Wakf properties existing in the State at the date of the commencement of the Act. The Act has also provided for the establishment of Wakf Board. Under Section 15 of the Act, the general superintendence of all Wakfs in the State vests in the Board and it is the duty of the Board to exercise its powers under the Act as to ensure that the wakf under its superintendence are properly maintained, controlled and administered and the income thereof is duly applied to the object and for the purpose for which such wakfs were created or intended. It is conceded that the suit Durga and its properties are Wakf properties. It is not in dispute that there is a scheme in regard to these properties. It is also common case that the scheme was in force even prior to the coming into force of the Wakf Act. Nonetheless, the suit properties will be covered by the Act, since the Wakf Act applies to all Wakfs whether created before or after the commencement of the Act. By virtue of the power conferred on it, the Wakf Board

has directed the appellant to have the Durga and its properties registered under the Act and submit accounts. It is true that under the Scheme framed by the court, the appellant is under the obligation to file the budget, get it audited by an auditor appointed by the court and then get it passed by court. Because the appellant is asked now to get the properties registered under the Wakf Act, and submit accounts to the Wakf Board, he contends that he is asked to send accounts to two bodies exercising parallel jurisdiction over the same wakf properties.

5. The contention of the appellant cannot be sustained. Once the statutory Act has come into force for the purpose of securing better administration and supervision of wakf properties and it creates an obligation and enforces the performance in a specified manner, the general rule is that that performance cannot be enforced in any other manner. The general superintendence of all Wakf vests in the Board and the Board's duty is to exercise its powers as to ensure that the wakfs under its superintendence are properly maintained, controlled and

administered. By virtu