The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea to challenge the appointment of Ashwani Kumar, the Principal Secretary (Home) of the Delhi government, as the administrator of the Delhi Waqf Board. The plea, which sought immediate removal of Kumar from the position, was directed back to the Delhi High Court by a bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal.
The petition, filed by Zameer Ahmad Jumlana, argued that the term of the Delhi State Waqf Board had expired on August 26, 2023, and no new board had been constituted since. It contended that in the absence of a board, the Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena had overstepped by appointing Kumar under the powers granted by Section 99 of the Waqf Act, 1995. The petition claimed, “When the tenure of the board has lapsed on August 26, 2023, there is no question of exercise of any power of the state government under Section 99 of the Waqf Act 1995 to take over the board. Thus, the respondent number 1 is an usurper of the power of the Delhi State Waqf Board.”
The petition also challenged Kumar’s eligibility under the Waqf Act of 1995, alleging that his appointment capitalized on the indefinite abeyance of the board due to negligence by the authorities. However, the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene directs the matter back to the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court, which had previously dismissed a similar plea by Yasmin Ali on May 28. The high court had criticized that earlier plea as publicity-oriented and an abuse of the legal process, imposing a Rs 10,000 cost on the petitioner for not providing valid reasons to quash Kumar’s appointment.
