The Maharashtra State Waqf Tribunal’s 2023 decision, which supported the registration of the Pune-based Haji Mohammad Jawad Ispahani Imambara Trust as a Waqf organization has been overturned by the Bombay High Court, reported India Today. The 2016 order by the Waqf Board to register the Imambara public trust as a Waqf under Section 43 of the Waqf Act, 1995, was struck down by Justice Sandeep V. Marne.
The Waqf Board was found to have misapplied Section 43, which declares certain Waqfs recognized under previous laws to be already registered under the 1995 Act, according to the court’s judgment. It made clear that a Muslim trust does not immediately acquire waqf status only because it has been recorded under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950. Justice Marne gave the complaint permission to submit a new application to the Waqf Tribunal and instructed it to independently settle the outstanding dispute. Additionally, the court directed the Tribunal to make its own determination free from the high court’s influence.
The Imambara, a prominent Pune property that houses a mosque for a particular Muslim community, was first registered in 1953 as a Muslim Public Trust. An application to register the trust as a Waqf institution was submitted to the Waqf Board due to allegations of poor administration within the trust. The trustees challenged the verdict before the Waqf Tribunal after the Waqf Board’s 2016 order. The trustees, however, filed a civil revision case in the high court after the Tribunal rejected the petition in 2023.
