IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE N. SENTHILKUMAR
Jeenath Beevi – Appellant
Versus
Tamil Nadu Wakf Board – Respondent
BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT Dated : 07/01/2026 CORAM THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE N.SENTHILKUMAR and C.M.P(MD) Nos.19567 of 2025 Jeenath Beevi ... Petitioner Vs
1.Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, Through its Secretary, No.3, Santhom High Road, Chennai - 4.
2. Emaneshwaram Pallivasal, Through its Secretary, Emaneshwaram, Paramakudi Town, Ramanathapuram District.
3. The Commissioner, Paramakudi Municipality, Paramakudi, Ramanathapuram District.
K.R.Kuppammal (Died) ... Respondents PRAYER :- Civil Revision Petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India to allow the revision and set aside the order dated 10.10.2025 made in A.S.No.28/2015 on the file of the Subordinate Court, Paramakudi.
For Petitioner : Mr.PT.S.Narendravasan, Advocate.
For R1 : Mr.K.Jeyamohan Standing Counsel For R2 : Mr.H.Jasima Yasmin for M/s.Ajmal Associates
ORDER
The civil revision petition has been filed to set aside the order dated
10.10.2025 made in A.S.No.28/2015 on the file of the Subordinate Court, Paramakudi.
2.The learned counsel for the revision petitioner vehemently contended the Appellate Court, without giving any notice or opportunity to the parties, suo motu transferred the appeal papers to the Wakf Tribunal on the question jurisdiction. Therefore, the order passed by the Appellate Court is liable to be set aside.
3.Per contra, the learned counsel for the second respondent would submit that when the Court passes an order suo motu, the question of issuing notice to the revision petitioner does not arise. He would further submit that the dispute relates to wakf property and any person having a dispute related to wakf or wakf property must, in the first instance, raise it before the Wakf Tribunal. Therefore, the order passed by the Appellate Court does not warrant interference. In support of his contention he relied upon the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in (2010) 14 SCC 588, in the case of Board of Wakf, West Bengal and another Vs Anis Fatma Begum and another. The relevant portions of the said judgment are extracted hereunder:-
7.The dispute in the present case relates to a Wakf. . In our opinion, all matters pertaining to Wakfs should be filed in the first instance before the Wakf Tribunal constituted under Section 83 of the Wakf Act, 1995 and should not be entertained by the Civil Court or by the High Court straightaway under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. It may be mentioned that the Wakf Act, 1995 is a recent parliamentary statute which has constituted a special Tribunal for deciding disputes relating to Wakfs. The obvious purpose of constituting such a Tribunal was that a lot of cases relating to Wakfs were being filed in the courts in India and they were occupying a lot of time of all the Courts in the country, which resulted in increase in pendency of cases in the Courts. Hence, a special Tribunal has been constituted for deciding such matters.
10.Thus, the Wakf Tribunal can decide all disputes, questions or other matters relating to a Wakf or Wakf property. The words "any dispute, question or other matters relating to a Wakf or Wakf property" are, in our opinion, words of very wide connotation. Any dispute, question or other matters whatsoever and in whatever manner which arises relating to a Wakf or Wakf property can be decided by the Wakf Tribunal. The word `Wakf' has been defined in Section 3 (r) of the Wakf Act, 1995 and hence once the property is found to be a Wakf property as defined in Section 3 (r), then any dispute, question or other matter relating to it should be agitated before the Wakf Tribunal.
11. Under Section 83 (5) of the Wakf Act, 1995 the Tribunal has all powers of the Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, and hence it has also powers under Order 39 Rules 1, 2 and 2A of the Code of Civil Procedure to grant temporary injunctions and enforce such injunctions. Hence, a full-fledged remedy is available to any party if there is any dispute, question or other matter relating to a
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