HC upholds woman's custodianship of dargah in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Hindustan Times

23-05-2025

MUMBAI: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition by an individual who sought to be declared the mutawalli, or custodian, of the Dargah Sayyed Shah Nizamuddin in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The individual had challenged the eligibility of a woman mutawalli, highlighting that Islamic law does not permit women to be mutawallis, or custodians of wakf properties. Observing that the individual had repeatedly approached the court on the same issue for years, the court declared the suit as 'vexatious', firmly dismissing the decades-long litigation.
The legal battle over the custodianship of Dargah Sayyad Shah Nizamuddin, situated at Nizamuddin Chowk in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, dates to 1966, when Gulam Moinoddin alias Kaisaruddin, died in 1965. He was survived by a wife and daughter. In 1996, a civil court passed a decree regarding the custodianship of the dargah, declaring Kaisaruddin's daughter Nayyarjahan Begum and his wife Mohamudi Begum as mutawallis. This decision was simultaneously recognised by the Maharashtra Wakf Board.
The petitioner, Syed Saleemuddin, 51, stated that there were ten other legal heirs and successors of Kaisaruddin, including himself. Saleemuddin's father, Syed Naseeruddin, had challenged the decree in 1975, questioning Nayyarjahan Begum's eligibility to hold the office. However, the suit was dismissed in 1981, a decision upheld by an appellate court in 1984. The decree was challenged again, in 2011 and in 2012, by Saleemuddin, but was rendered invalid as the courts rejected the appeal repeatedly.
During the pendency of the 2011 case, Saleemuddin filed a Wakf suit in 2013, seeking a declaration that the women in question were self-styled custodians of the dargah. Saleemuddin claimed that the Wakf Board had wrongly presumed that Nayyarjahan Begum was the mutawalli of the shrine. He claimed she could not be the mutawalli of the dargah as Islamic law does not permit women to hold that position. Declaring himself as a direct descendant of the dargah's original mutawalli, Saleemuddin claimed he was legally entitled to be appointed as its custodian.
He issued a notice to the Wakf Board on April 16, 2012, to accept his status as mutawalli and remove Nayyarjahan Begum from the office. Following this, his father, Syed Naseeruddin also approached the Bombay High Court in 2014, challenging the order passed by the Maharashtra Wakf Board, accepting Nayyarjahan Begum's eligibility to hold the office of custodian. He claimed the order passed by the Board was illegal and void ab initio, on grounds that women could not be appointed as mutawallis of dargahs.
Nayyarjahan Begum, on the other hand, urged the high court to reject Saleemuddin's claims, arguing that Saleemuddin lacked the locus standi to file the suit. She stated that he was claiming the right based on succession through his father.
Advocates Anand P Bhandari and Najam E Deshmukh for Nayyarjahan Begum and the Maharashtra Wakf Board stated that Saleemuddin was a habitual litigant and files vexatious proceedings on the same cause. They added that Nayyarjahan Begum's entitlement had also been approved by a civil court. According to them, no error could be found in the order passed by the Wakf Board.
In its judgment, on April 30, the single-judge bench of Justice SG Chapalgaonkar upheld the decision of the Wakf Board and rejected the plaint. It observed that the plaint clearly demonstrates the intention of the plaintiff to harass Nayyarjahan Begum, who had already been declared a successor to Jahagirdar Sayyad Shah Gulam Moinoddin, mutawalli of the dargah. Dismissing the suit, the court found no merit in the civil revision application.