IMPORTANT POINT
The FIR was quashed as it contravened Section 52A(3) of the Waqf Act, 1995, which bars cognizance of offences without a complaint from the Waqf Board.

JUDGMENT :

SYED QAMAR HASAN RIZVI, J.

1. Heard Shri A.C. Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioners, Shri Anil Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for opposite party no. 4 and learned Additional Government Advocate for the State.

2. Since pure legal issue is involved in this case therefore, without calling counter affidavit, with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the present Writ Petition is being decided finally at the stage of first hearing in view of the second proviso to Rule 2 of Chapter XXII of the Allahabad High Court Rules (Rules of Court, 1952).

3. By means of the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have prayed for quashing the First Information Report dated 29.08.2024, registered as Case Crime No. 0293 of 2024, under Sections 419, 420, 323, 504, 506, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code at Police Station-Shahganj, District-Jaunpur and also for a direction to the official respondents not to arrest the petitioner in pursuance of impugned First Information Report.

4. The relevant facts of the case in brief as culled out from the averments made in the writ petition are that the present petitioners and the opposite party no. 4 belongs to the same family. The ancestors of the petitioners and opposite party no. 4, namely, Late Sheikh Asgar son of Sheikh Ghooran resident of Erakiyana, created a Waqf in the year 1959, in respect of the property owned by him and remained ‘Mutawalli’ of the same till his death. Thereafter, as per the deed of Waqf, his son Mohd. Amin assumed the office of Mutawalli-ship. The said Waqf was duly registered by the U.P. Sunni Central Waqf Board, Lucknow as Waqf No. 49A-Jaunpur. After the death of the aforesaid Mohd. Amin, his son Mohd. Firoz Alam became the Mutawalli of the said Waqf on 01.01.2011. The U.P. Sunni Central Waqf Board vide order dated 19.03.2019 removed the said Mohd. Firoz Alam from the office of Mutawalli-ship and in the vacancy thus caused, appointed Shri Abdul Mannan the petitioner No. 1 herein as the Mutawalli, to manage the affairs of the said Waqf.

5. The pleadings as available before us, shows that the petitioner No. 1 is holding the Tauliyat since 19.03.2019 i.e. the date of his appointment as Mutawalli. In the instant case, one Mohd. Rizwan, son of Late Nizamuddin who is the opposite party no. 4 herein, lodged a First Information Report (herein after referred as ‘F.I.R’.) dated 29.08.2024 against the petitioners, namely, Abdul Mannan, Mohd. Rehan, Mohd. Shakir and Abdul Hannan alleging therein that the petitioners are damaging the Waqf for their personal gain. It is also alleged that despite full knowledge of the fact that Late Sheikh Asgar devoted all of his property as Waqf on 14.03.1959, the petitioner No. 1 manipulated a ‘Hiba-nama’ dated 27.10.1969 in respect of a part of the aforesaid property and further got the same mutated in his name, in the Revenue Records. In the said F.I.R., it has been categorically alleged that on the strength of the aforesaid unlawful entries made in the Revenue Records on the basis of a fraudulent ‘Hiba-nama’, he illegally alienated the said Waqf property in favour of about 40 persons even without the approval of the U.P. Sunni Central Waqf Board. Further allegation as made in the said F.I.R. is that on 18.06.2024, at about 10:00 AM, petitioners tried to erect a boundary wall and a gate on the said Waqf property and on being opposed by the Informant/opposite party no. 4 along with his sons, the petitioners uttered filthy abuses while beating the informant with kicks/punches and stick and also threatened to kill, resulting into the lodging of the impugned F.I.R.

6. Assertion on behalf of the petitioners is that the allegation as levelled by the opposite party no. 4 in the impugned F.I.R. is totally bald and have no substance. The properties alleged to have been alienated are not the Waqf property and the same has been acquired by the above named petitioner from his gran