The Supreme Court on Tuesday modified an interim order of the Kerala High Court that had directed the Kerala State Waqf Board to function under the supervision of the Joint Secretary to the State Government, holding that such a direction was unnecessary at the interim stage.
The dispute arises from interim directions issued by the Kerala High Court in a batch of petitions challenging the constitution of the Kerala State Waqf Board under Section 14 of the Waqf Act, 1995. The High Court had directed that the Board should not take any policy decisions or incur capital expenditure without its permission and further ordered that the Board would function under the supervision of the Joint Secretary dealing with Waqf matters.
Before the Supreme Court, senior counsel for the Waqf Board argued that the High Court had effectively substituted a statutory body with a government official without hearing the affected Board members. It was contended that while the petitions before the High Court principally sought appointment of two non-Muslim members to the Board, the interim directions went far beyond the relief sought by placing the Board under governmental supervision.
After hearing all sides, the Bench of Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana held that the first part of the High Court’s order, which restrained the Board from taking policy decisions or incurring capital expenditure without leave of the court, was sufficient to safeguard the interests involved. Accordingly, the Court deleted the last direction requiring the Board to function under the supervision of the Joint Secretary.
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“We are satisfied that there is no necessity for retention of the last line of paragraph 6… Consequently, the further direction issued by the High Court to the effect that the Board shall, for the time being, function under the supervision of the Joint Secretary to the State Government is hereby deleted.”
The Supreme Court clarified that the Joint Secretary would continue to function only in his capacity as an ex officio member of the Board, and not as its supervising authority.
Noting that the matter was already listed before the Kerala High Court, the Bench requested the High Court to expeditiously decide the interim applications after giving all affected parties an opportunity to file their pleadings and be heard. The Court also clarified that it had expressed no opinion on the merits of the controversy.