The Gauhati High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed essentially raising a grievance that the Waqf properties in the State of Assam have been encroached by various persons and the authorities concerned are not taking any action for removal of encroachment.
In the petition, the Secretary to the Government of Assam, Welfare of Minorities and Development Department; the Chairman, the Assam Board of Waqf and the Chief Executive Officer, the Assam Board of Waqf have been impleaded as party respondent Nos.1, 2 and 3.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice N. Unni Krishnan Nair noted that in the petition, the petitioner has come up with the case that he moved representations to the Chairman of the Assam Board of Waqf, the Chief Executive Officer of the Assam Board of Waqf and Deputy Secretary to the Government of Assam, Welfare of Minorities and Development Department.
From the perusal of the said representations, the Court noted that the petitioner has complained about Waqf property belonging to Golam Rahman Waqf Estate only and has not raised any grievance about the Waqf properties of the entire State of Assam, which are allegedly encroached by the encroachers.
It is contended by the counsel for the petitioner that he filed an application in the RTI seeking information regarding the encroachment over the Waqf properties in the State of Assam and the authorities concerned has supplied him the list of encroachers over the land and on the basis of that he has filed this writ petition praying for issuing directions to the respondents to get the encroachment removed from the Waqf properties.
Having gone through the petition as well as the documents annexed thereto, the Court is of the view that the petition is filed without proper research and the same is based only on vague and bald allegations. A person who files any petition in public interest, is supposed to do proper research and place relevant and cogent material before the Court for the public cause. All these elements are missing in the present writ petition. Hence, the Court was not inclined to entertain this writ petition in the form of public interest litigation and the same is, therefore, dismissed by the High Court.
“However, if the petitioner is having any grievance, he can move a representation before the Chief Executive Officer of the Assam Board of Waqf with proper details and sufficient material. On receipt of such representation, the Chief Executive Officer of the Assam Board of Waqf may examine the grievance and also take into consideration the material placed by the petitioner and thereafter, act in accordance with law, particularly, under Section 54 of the Waqf Act, 1955, if required so”, the order reads.