Bukhari

New Delhi, Nov. 20 (PTI): The Centre and the Wakf Board today told Delhi High Court that a weekend ceremony where Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari plans to anoint his 19-year-old son as deputy and successor has no legal sanctity.

The court was hearing three PILs against Saturday’s event where Bukhari intends to anoint his son “Naib Imam” or deputy, a post that will make the scion the next chief cleric.

The board also told the court that it would meet soon and take action against Bukhari. The Centre, represented by additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, said the ceremony could go ahead without legal sanctity, but at a place other than the Jama Masjid.

Yesterday, the government had said the Mughal-era mosque was a Wakf property and it must be decided legally if the rule of primogeniture (inheritance) applied to the anointment of new Imam. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had requested the court earlier to declare the mosque an ancient monument because of its national importance and the need for it to be protected.

The PILs have asked how the Imam could treat the mosque “as his fiefdom” if, as the cleric has argued, the upcoming anointment ceremony was a personal event.

A bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw, which has been hearing arguments in the case, said today it would pass orders later.

The Wakf Board, asked earlier by the court whether the Jama Masjid was under its supervision, replied that it was and said the current Imam cannot on his own appoint a successor. The board said it was the mosque’s muttawalli who will appoint a management committee to pick one. It recalled that the current Imam was appointed in 2000 but was ratified as one only in 2006.

The PILs have said the Jama Masjid was a property of the Delhi Wakf Board and Bukhari, as its employee, cannot appoint his son as deputy.

Bukhari had on October 30 announced the ceremony, to which he has not invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Senior leaders from all parties, including the BJP, and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are invited.

“Despite knowing that the Shahi Imam is an employee of the Wakf Board, which has the right to appoint an Imam, he (Bukhari) has declared his 19-year-old son to be a Naib Imam and is holding a dastarbandi (anointment) ceremony… which is purely anti-Islamic,” one of the pleas said.

The PILs also claimed that the Shahi Imam was a public post, not the “personal property” of Syed Ahmed Bukhari that could be transferred.

“… Such an important position cannot be inherited by birth,” the PIL said, adding the court should also declare invalid Bukhari’s appointment.