The Patna high court ordered the demolition of a four-storey Sunni Waqf building funded by the state minority welfare department adjacent to High Court‘Centenary Building’ within a month.
A special bench of five justices including Justices Ashwin Kumar Singh, Vikas Jain, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Rajendra Kumar Mishra, and Chakradhari Sharan Singh, heard and took suo motu cognizance of the matter.
While all four judges favored demolishing the Waqf Bhawan, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah gave the dissenting opinion remarking that the said construction is ‘irregular’ and not ‘illegal’.
When Advocate General Lalit Kishore representing the state, pointed that only the part above 10 meters of height was irregular, the Court quickly rejected his arguments.
It stated, “The very initiation of the entire project with the takeover of the property of Waqf Estate No. 663 by the Waqf Board was unauthorised and without fulfilling the preconditions of section 32 of the Central Act.”
The High Court further questioned the state government about the urgency to construct such a building during a pandemic while no other construction was taking place in the state.
The court declared the construction illegal under ‘Bihar Building Bylaws 2014,’ which states no building should be constructed with a height over 10 meters within 200 meters radius boundary of the governor’s house, the state secretariat, the legislative assembly, the high court, and other high-security buildings.
It further pointed out that the Waqf board did not have any authority to take up the property of Waqf estate for constructing musafirkhana as per the Central Waqf Act, 1993 and Bihar Waqf Act, 1947.
The Court has ordered the state government to set up an inquiry committee to ascertain which officers were the officials who directed the illegal construction of the Waqf Building, which led to the loss of about Rs 14 crore of the public.
