Sambhal court dismisses waqf claim, imposes ₹6.94 crore penalty on Jama Masjid imam

A tehsildar court in Sambhal has imposed a staggering penalty of ₹6.94 crore upon the imam of a local mosque and his brother, rejecting their assertions that the occupied terrain constituted registered waqf properties under the aegis of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board.

Notwithstanding the defendants' insistence that the site served as a long-standing religious sanctuary recognised by the Board, the court upheld the sanctity of state revenue records, which unequivocally categorise the 0.1340-hectare plot in Saif Khan Sarai village as the inalienable asset of the gram sabha, according to The Indian Express.

The order, issued by the tehsildar court after adjudicating upon a revenue inquiry, directed the occupants to vacate the land situated in Saif Khan Sarai village while also holding them liable for a substantial monetary penalty calculated on the basis of prevailing circle rates for the period during which the alleged unauthorised possession was found to have subsisted.

The proceedings were precipitated by a report from the area lekhpal, whose audit concluded that Aftab Hussain, the imam of Jama Masjid, had encroached upon public land by erecting permanent structures comprising a residential house, a mosque and a dargah nearly two decades ago.

Although the constructions themselves were said to have been raised comparatively recently, the court’s scrutiny of the revenue records traced the family’s possession of the land back to 1972, thereby establishing what authorities described as a prolonged period of unauthorised occupation extending across several decades.

Tehsildar Dhirendra Singh explained that the substantial penalty was determined on the basis of the prevailing circle rates applicable to the locality, which were retrospectively applied from the year 1972, the period from which the respondents’ possession over the land was found to have subsisted according to official documentation.

The court, after hearing submissions from both parties and examining the relevant records, subsequently directed the occupants to vacate the land, which continues to be recorded in the revenue register as property belonging to the gram sabha.

The proceedings had commenced after a formal notice was issued to the respondents on June 24 last year following the submission of the lekhpal’s report. During the course of the hearings, Aftab Hussain and his brother Mehtab Hussain filed a reply contending that they were functioning jointly as mutawallis, or custodians, of the religious site and were therefore in possession of the property in that capacity.

They further submitted that the mosque and the adjoining shrine were registered waqf properties recognised by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, and that the site had long served as a religious centre where an annual Urs congregation is conducted.

According to their submission, their father, Khursheed Hussain, had previously served as the mutawalli of the site, thereby indicating a familial custodianship over the religious establishment.