Clarify nature of Antilia case, Bombay HC tells Wakf board

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday issued a notice to state Wakf board to clarify the nature of the case that is pending before the Supreme Court concerning the south Mumbai residence of Reliance company chief Mukesh Ambani, Antilia. The court was hearing a 2007 petition filed by Jalna resident Abdul Mateen, who is a school teacher, alleging that Antilia was built on Wakf land.

A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Nitin Jamdar was hearing a PIL filed by Abdul Matin, a schoolteacher and resident of Jalna district of Maharashtra. In 2007, Matin had read a news article about the sale of property and file petition in the  high court.

Initially, the land belonged to Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja orphanage trust, which runs an orphanage for Muslim children. In 2005, Ambani’s company Muffin-Antilia Comm-ercial Private Limited purchased the property.

Matin’s lawyer Adocate M.S. Choudhry on Friday argued before the court that the object of his main petition is to show mismanagement of Wakf board and the errant sale of all its properties.

Senior counsel Milind Sathe, who is representing Ambani said that the Supreme Court is also hearing the same issue which the petitioner has raised in his petition.

Sathe said that the orphanage was a secular trust and it did not belong to a particular cast or religion and it did not come under the Waqf board. Sathe further argued that the orphanage is registered with the Charity commissioner and therefore when the land was purchased a permission of  Charity Commissioner was taken.

The high court passed a favourable judgment, which was challenged by the Wakf board and the state in the Supreme Court.The court has asked the Wakf board to file its reply to the petition and also asked to clarify the issues that are being looked at by the Supreme Court.