Nagore Dargah under Wakf Board

The administration will not be with the scheme court that currently administers Wakf
A view of the Nagore Dargah
A view of the Nagore Dargah

CHENNAI: The administration of Nagore dargah in Nagapattinam district and its properties can be vested with the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board constituted under the Wakf Act in 1995 alone, the Madras High Court has ruled.

A division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee gave the ruling while passing orders on a batch of writ appeals and writ petitions, on June 8 last.

The administration of the dargah would not lie with the scheme court - the Nagapattinam Principal District Court - which currently administers the Wakf through a board comprising hereditary trustees, the bench added.

“Even where the courts have framed a scheme under Sec 92 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) for the administration of the Wakf on the establishment of Wakf Board, the residual power of superintendence of the Wakfs which had hither  remained with the court as the conscience keeper of the public trusts founded on the principle of parens patriae, would shift from the ‘scheme court’ to the Wakf Board”, the bench said.

In effect, the Wakf Board replaces the Nagapattinam principal district court in administering the Wakf properties of the dargah. However, its power of superintendence stops on determination of surplus income meant for the ‘kasupangudars’ (sharers of money). One immediate effect is that the Wakf Board cannot claim contribution in relation to the surplus funds meant for distribution to the ‘kasupangudars’, the bench said.

As to the second aspect of the pleas, that is, who would be the successor of Haja Vanchur Pakir Sahib alias Chinnathambi Sahib, one of the eight hereditary trustees who died on December 4, 2013, the bench held that only a civil court has jurisdiction to decide on the issue. It directed the Nagapattinam court to dispose of the issue within six months.

Surplus funds
One immediate effect is that the Wakf Board cannot claim contribution in relation to the surplus funds meant for distribution to the ‘kasupangudars’, the bench said

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