Summary
The Supreme Court restored interim directions favouring Hammad Ahmed’s claim to act as Hamdard’s Chief Mutawalli. Reading the founding deed and its amendments cumulatively, the Court preferred the senior-most eligible male descendant holding office as Mutawalli over a claim based on lineal primogeniture. The ruling concerned management under the deed, rather than succession to a deceased person’s estate, and expressly preserved final adjudication of both suits on evidence.
Issues
- How the deed governed interim entitlement to the Chief Mutawalli’s office.
- Whether pending criminal cases disqualified the appellant at this stage.
- Whether mandatory interim relief was permissible.
Held
- The documents must be read as a whole. The amended clauses identified the senior-most male descendant of the founding Mutawalli who already held office as Mutawalli. Equal representation of both sons’ branches and the deed’s language did not support the rival construction based on lineal primogeniture. (¶ 40–53)
- Appointment of a secretary under the 1995 board arrangements neither rewrote the deed nor defeated the claim through delay or acquiescence. Pending criminal prosecutions without conviction did not establish the conviction-based disqualification invoked here. (¶¶ 49, 54–55)
- Mandatory interim relief is exceptional but permissible on a case stronger than an ordinary prima facie case, with compelling considerations of convenience and irreparable injury. The agreed interim controversy required identifying who should manage as Chief Mutawalli. (¶ 56–58)
- The Single Judge’s order was restored, with the agreed April 2015 arrangements additionally continuing. The editor-recorded subsequent correction confines that continuation to banking operations. Final determination of the suits remained dependent on evidence. (¶ 59–61)
Result
Appeals allowed. Division Bench order set aside and Single Judge’s interim order restored, with the April 2015 banking arrangements additionally continuing as subsequently corrected. Final merits preserved; each side was to receive at most three months to complete evidence for expedited disposal.