Do not wish to be under Waqf bill’s purview: Dawoodi Bohra Muslims

New Delhi: The Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community submitted it before the parliamentary committee, which examines the proposed Waqf (Amendment) Bill, and they do not wish to be included in the purview of any Waqf board. They contended that the bill does not recognize their special status, PTI reported.

Senior advocate Harish Salve appeared for the Dawoodi Bohra community- an affluent but microscopic minority sect among Muslims- before the panel headed by veteran BJP MP Jagdambika Pal. A written submission made by the community noted that it is a "small and tightly-knit" denomination.

"Its affairs do not need the kind of regulation that may be considered necessary or even desirable in relation to other denominations that do not believe in any such religious tenet," it said, according to sources.

It is necessary that the community members are permitted to establish, maintain, manage and administer such properties in accordance with their beliefs and essential religious practices, it stressed.

The power of the Waqf board undermines the community's founding faith, it claimed, citing various Supreme Court judgments to underscore the judiciary's recognition of their "distinctive structure".

Salve argued at length about the Dawoodi Bohra's distinctive features, especially the institution of 'al-Dai al-Mutlaq', a living community leader who enjoys absolute and unquestioned power in its affairs, to argue that any Waqf board can not be allowed to have the final power over the group's properties and related affairs.

The 'al-Dai al-Mutlaq' is their sole trustee who administers all the properties of the community, and his decisions are sacrosanct and challenging his words is sacrilegious, it added.

The community members also said the existing Waqf Act, which was enacted in 1955, is "utterly incompatible" with their faith, the submission said.