Defiance to exemption: A history of the Bohra community’s resistance to waqf law

In July 1945, the Privy Council dismissed an appeal filed by Ali Mohammad Adamalli, a Bohra merchant from Mumbai. Adamalli had been fined Rs 1,000 by the Bombay High Court for contempt as he had failed to follow repeated directions of a lower court to file details of the waqf property he was managing.

A waqf is an endowment made by a Muslim for charitable or religious purposes.

Under provisions of the Mussulman Waqf Act, 1923, every mutawalli of a waqf was supposed to furnish details of income and expenditure. Aggrieved by the high court order, Adamalli had approached the Privy Council, which was the highest court in colonial India.

Members of the Bohra community did not share details of the waqf under their control, saying that their community charities were all under the management and guidance of the Syedna, and whose spiritual position was such that he could not be expected to file details in any court of law.

The other line of reasoning adopted by several Bohra mutawallis was that the property in question was not waqf as per the definition of the 1923 Act. Suits were filed in high courts for a declaration that several charitable and religious properties under the control of the Bohra community were not...

Read more

News