Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs Vs Shaikh Yusuf Bhai Chawla (Supreme Court of India)
Supreme Court held that the existence of an alternate remedy by itself cannot exclude the jurisdiction of the High Court under the Constitution.
Facts-
The contention raised by the Board is that under the Act there is a remedy provided namely, a right to a person aggrieved to approach the Tribunal. The Tribunal is well equipped to deal with vexed issues related to Wakf. It is a Tribunal specially constituted for the said purpose. No prejudice is caused by the mere publication of the list. Even dehors the publication of the list, the Wakfs are otherwise covered.
Conclusion-
We would understand that the position to be that a constitutional remedy cannot be barred or excluded as when the High Court exercises its power under Article 226, it cannot be a case of lack of inherent jurisdiction.
While it may be true that a statute may provide for an alternate forum to which the High Court may relegate the party in an appropriate case, the existence of an alternate remedy by itself cannot exclude the jurisdiction of the High Court under the Constitution.
We have understood the position to be that once a list is published with the blessings of the Board, having considered the report in the manner to be done by examining ‘the report’, interference with the same is only premised on a decision of the Tribunal in a properly constituted proceeding within the time as provided in Section 6. In this case if we are otherwise inclined to interfere with the judgment, this would mean that we would have to restore the lists dated 13.11.2003 and 30.12.2004. The position on the ground, however, has been already stated viz., the filing of the writ petitions, constitution of a Bifurcation Committee, various proceedings, the exclusion of several trusts which are described as public Trusts from the original lists and their restoration again. Yet another development which we cannot ignore is that the Government itself took it upon itself apparently on the basis of the report of the JPC to order resurvey on 20.10.2010. An interim order was passed by this Court in 2012.
FULL TEXT OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT/ORDER
