The Hindu : New Delhi News : Police cover for Wakf Board Chief ordered

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 03, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Police cover for Wakf Board Chief ordered

Staff Reporter

Counsel received threat calls after decision on Jama Masjid

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi police to immediately provide security to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Delhi Wakf Board, Faizi-O-Hashmi, and counsel for the Board, Najmi Waziri.

A Division Bench comprising Justice B.C. Patel and Justice S.K. Kaul directed the High Court Registrar-General to intimate the orders of the Court to the city police Commissioner, K.K. Paul, and the Standing Counsel of the Delhi Government forthwith for its immediate compliance. The Bench passed the orders on a petition by the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) saying that the counsel for the Board had received threat calls following ruling by the Court that it was not the Shahi Imam of the mosque, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, but the Wakf Board which was the custodian of the historic Jama Masjid in the Walled City area here.

The Division Bench directed the city police to provide security to the above-mentioned persons and their immediate family members and any other member of the Board, if required, without waiting for fresh orders from the Court.

The Bench observed that it would not tolerate if any advocate was threatened to prevent him or her from performing his or her duties towards his or her clients.

The Bar Association in its application had submitted that Mr. Waziri had received calls threatening him and his family member with dire consequences. Mr. Waziri is at present representing the Board in a case in which a public interest litigant has sought directions from the Court to declare the Jama Masjid a protected monument.

During the hearing of the petition by Usha Kumar, a Delhi High Court lawyer, the Bench had last month objected to release of funds to the Shahi Imam by the Centre for upkeep and preservation of the historic monument saying that the Imam was nobody so far as the preservation of the monument was concerned. He was just an employee of the Wakf Board, the Bench stressed.

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