Stay on sale or transfer of dargah properties

Justice M M Sundaresh while granting the interim injunction adjourned the case by four weeks for filing counter. Syed Mohamed Kalifa, president, Nagore Dargah Advisory Board submitted that, after being unable to find a village by name Ettivaikkaal on the list of assets belonging to Nagore Dargah, he had written to the Managing Trustee and Manager of Nagore Dargah to furnish information pertaining to the assets and property belonging to the dargah in a bid to regularise it. 

But, with no response coming from the other side, he got the District Minority Officer to direct all Tahsildars to provide list of assets belonging to the dargah. Barring Kuthalam Tahsildar, who stated there were no property pertaining to the dargah in his taluk, his counterparts did not respond.

However, with the issue running through legal hurdles, Kalifa claimed that his constant enquires led him to the assets relating to the main property in Nagore Dargah viz the dargah situated in Vanjur. Kallifa noted that he was shocked to find from the revenue department that the patta relating to the property was not even in the name of Nagore Dargah, but in the name of an individual. 

Also, in another patta relating to the said property, there were names of four individuals alongside Nagore Dargah as being the owners of Vanjur Dargah. He sought a direction to the district judge and scheme judge of Nagapattinam to conduct an inquiry into the properties belonging to Nagore Dargah and list those that were unlawfully transferred to private parties.

Hearing a against the encroachments on Arafath Lake at Sozhambedu village, the High court has directed the Tiruvallur collector to consider the plea and take necessary action. The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh, before which the PIL came up for hearing, said “Consider the representation of the petitioner made on Nov 3, 2014, within two months.” Social Activist Traffic K R Ramaswamy submitted that Arafath Lake has been catering to the irrigation needs. But,now and the lake was being sold as housing plots by land sharks. He claimed that his repeated pleas to the CM cell and PWD have failed to evoke any response. He had sought the court to remove the encroachments and restore the water body to its original shape.

The HC has directed the state government to file a counter on a PIL petition filed by the PMK challenging the appointment of 11 TNPSC members as illegal.

The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh, before which the petition filed by Advocates Forum for Social Justice affiliated to the PMK came up on Thursday, directed the Government to file its counter by March 31, 2016. After the DMK, the PMK has now challenged the appointment through a PIL claiming that all 11 persons have been appointed based on their political affiliation to the AIADMK. 

The plea further stated that out of the 11 members, six of them were advocates who were either government advocates or Standing Counsels of Stateowned undertakings. The petitioner further submitted that the other five members were also not persons with integrity and were ineligible to be appointed as TNPSC members. The appointments had failed to give adequate representation to women and also failed to include experts from various fields. It also alleged that the appointments had been made without adhering to the guidelines laid out by the apex court.