Bombay HC stays collector's hand over dues from Haji Ali trust

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the collector not to take any coercive measures against the Haji Ali Dargah Trust to recover Rs 1.88 crore, which is 50 per cent of the total amount the trust has earned from sub-letting the trust land to mobile towers since 2009.

The court was hearing a writ petition filed by Abdul Sattar Merchant, a trustee of the dargah, against the 20-day notice issued by the collector on May 4 asking the trust to deposit the amount within the deadline, failing which it would start recovery proceedings that could lead to attachment of the dargah.

The single bench of Justice Prakash D. Naik while hearing the writ was informed by the petitioner’s lawyer that in 2016, the collector, on the basis of a 2005 Maharashtra government notification, had asked the trust to share 50 per cent of the income it generated from sub-letting a portion of the land leased to the trust for installing mobile towers. Though the trust had responded to the demand stating that the notification was pertaining to only housing societies and theirs was a trust and exempt from sharing the income, the collector passed an order in March 2017 demanding that the trust had to share the 50 per cent of the income generated.

The petitioner further informed the court that as the trust was a charitable one, it had spent the amount on charitable activities and did not have the amount being demanded by the collector.

After hearing the contentions of the trust, the bench maintain a status quo till the next hearing on June 14.

The trust, which has a lease of more than 4,100 square yards of land that houses the dargah and other open land, had sub-let a small portion of the land to cellular firms for installing mobile towers. The trust had been collecting rent from them since then, which was being used for charitable activities including providing education to underprivileged children.