HC dismisses with costs plea to quash Delhi Waqf Board administrator’s appointment

PTI, May 28, 2024, 5:12 PM IST

The Delhi High Court has dismissed with costs of Rs 10,000 a petition seeking quashing of the appointment of Ashwani Kumar as the administrator of the Delhi Waqf Board over the demolition of the Akhoondji mosque earlier this year.

Justice Subramonium Prasad said the petition by Yamin Ali was publicity-oriented and an abuse of the process of law as it did not give any valid reasons for quashing the appointment of the city government officer as the administrator of the board.

”This court is not inclined to entertain the present writ petition and is inclined to dismiss the writ petition imposing costs of Rs 10,000/- on the Petitioner to be deposited with the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund within four weeks from today,” said the judge in an order passed on May 24.

”This court does not find any reason to quash the appointment of Respondent No.2. It cannot be said that Respondent No.2 is not qualified to be appointed as an Administrator. This Writ Petition is nothing but an abuse of the process of law and is a publicity-oriented litigation,” the court said.

A resident of Mehrauli, the petitioner had said his mother lay buried in the graveyard adjacent to the ancient mosque which he claimed to be a property of the Delhi Waqf Board.

Claiming that the administrator failed to protect the mosque from demolition despite being its custodian, the petitioner contended he should be removed from the post.

The ‘Akhoondji mosque’, believed to be over 600 years old, as well as the Behrul Uloom madrasa there were declared as illegal structures in Sanjay Van and demolished by the DDA on January 30.

In the order, the court said other than stating that the actions of the administrator are bad, the petitioner gave no reason why he lacked the qualification to be appointed as an administrator, and attempted to give a communal flavour to the actions.

It also noted that the petitioner had even earlier filed a petition on the same issue, and after withdrawing it, he again filed the ”very same writ petition with the very same allegations”.

”It is always open for the Petitioner to approach the Waqf Board for challenging the actions of the Administrator or file a petition challenging specific actions in this regard which has been done in several other petitions pending before this court,” it said.

”The petition is dismissed along with pending application(s), if any,” it added.