The Supreme Court has directed the Allahabad High Court to take up on urgent basis a writ petition filed by the Maulana Mohamad Ali Jauhar Trust challenging the Uttar Pradesh government’s order to take over the land of Jauhar University in Rampur.
The order was passed by the Bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on an interim application filed by Trust owner and former UP Minister Azam Khan.
The Apex Court asked the High Court to take up the plea expeditiously and consider it on its own merits.
Noting that the verdict was recently reserved, the Apex Court proceeded to release the matter from its part heard status on the grounds that it needed further hearing and that one of the members of the Bench was sitting in the Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction.
The proceedings were directed to be listed before an appropriate Bench in the next cause list.
The top court of the country noted that one of the Judges in the Division Bench which reserved the matter for judgment initially, has since been transferred to the High Court at Calcutta.
The proceedings, therefore, will have to be listed before a fresh Bench to be nominated by the Chief Justice in any event, it added.
Appearing for the Trust, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that there were several hundred girls in that school.
He said the petition was filed in January, adding that the petitioners were told to vacate the plea since the High Court had filed an interim order.
The Apex Court advised him to approach the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court for relief.
As per Sibal, they had already done this several times.
The Bench then directed the High Court to place the writ petition in the list of urgent admissions.
It further granted liberty to the petitioner to move the Bench presided over by the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad for interim relief.
Filed by the Executive Committee of the Trust, the writ petition challenged the High Court order of July 14, 2023, which refused to grant any relief to the petitioner.