The Madras High Court has directed an ad hoc board of administrators, comprising former IAS officer K. Alauddin and retired district judge S.F. Akbar, of Nagore Dargah in Nagapattinam district to show cause as to why they should not be substituted for having reportedly misused their position and the funds of the Dargah for filing an unnecessary writ appeal before the court.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy took suo motu cognisance of the issue and called for an explanation from the ad hoc administrators by March 10. The judges also wanted to know why they were still continuing in office though they were appointed by the court only for a short period of four months in February 2017.
The first Division Bench further directed the ad hoc administrators to file an affidavit listing out the expenses incurred by them with regard to the affairs of the Dargah and their own affairs in the last five years. S. Haja Mohideen Gisthi, counsel for Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, was also ordered to furnish expenses incurred by the ad hoc administrators towards travel and other purposes.
Despite dismissing the writ appeal as infructuous, the judges kept the matter pending in view of the suo motu cognisance taken by them and directed the High Court Registry to list the case again next month for receiving the response from the ad hoc administrators. In the meanwhile, the affairs of the Dargah should be managed by the wakf board and not the administrators, the Bench ordered.
If the wakf board too ends up mismanaging the Dargah, then the court might nominate a different board of administrators, the judges warned. The appeal had been preferred against an order passed by a single judge on January 5 this year directing the wakf board to consider a representation made by Muhalli Muthavalli H. Haja Nazimudden Sahib seeking permission to participate in the 465 th Urus festival.
The Wakf Board considered and rejected the representation on January 7. It did not allow anyone to participate in the ceremonies held between January 7 to 14. The Wakf Board’s order was acknowledged by the ad hoc administrators too. Yet, they had chosen to file the writ appeal on February 4 on the ground that the single judge had passed the order without affording an opportunity of hearing to them.
“This is nothing but misuse of the position and funds of the Dargah by the adhoc board of administrators. Merely because the ad hoc committee comprises a retired IAS Officer and a retired district judge, they cannot be permitted to misuse the funds,” the Bench led by the Chief Justice wrote and directed the administrators to justify their continuance for nearly five years though they were appointed only for four months.
