Waqf Board Issues Notice To Mazgaon’s Nariyalwadi Masjid Trust Over 20-Year Accounting Gap

Mumbai: ​The trust managing the Nariyalwadi Masjid and Kabrastan in Mazgaon, one of the largest Muslim cemeteries in the city, has been issued a notice by the Maharashtra State Board of Waqf (MSBW) Mumbai, for not submitting the details of the accumulated expenditure from the year 2005 to 2025 to the board which administers Muslim religious trusts in the state. The Nariyalwadi Mosque and Cemetery Trust said that the organisation was not a Waqf trust.

Penalty Includes Jail, Fine

​In their notice, the MSBW said that the trust violated Section 46 of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995 (Umeed Act, 1995), also called the Waqf Act, which makes it mandatory to submit the details of the accumulated expenditure of each financial year to the office of the Waqf Board before 1 October. The MSBW said that records indicate that the trust has not submitted the details of the accumulated expenditure from the year 2005 to 2025 to the Waqf Board.

​The MSBW said mutawalli (caretakers) of Waqf trusts shall keep regular accounts of all moneys received from any source or expended by the official on behalf of the waqf during the period of twelve months ending on the 31st day of March. The board said that if the mutawalli fails to provide a statement of accounts, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months and also with a fine which shall not be less than twenty thousand rupees but which may extend to one lakh rupees.

Trust Listed Under Waqf Board Jurisdiction

​The Waqf Board said that the trust has been numbered as MSBW/MUM/532/2024 in the list of properties under their jurisdiction. Faiyaz Pathan, District Waqf Officer, Mumbai, said in his notice that any explanation received after the prescribed period will not be entertained. "In case of no response from you, it will be deemed that you have admitted that you have violated the above provisions and a report in this regard will be submitted to the Hon. Chief Executive Officer, Maharashtra State Waqf Board," the notice said.

​Pathan told this newspaper that the MSBW has not received a reply from the trust. Advocate Javed Khan Akhtar, trustee of the Nariyalwadi Mosque and Cemetery Trust, said they are in the process of drafting a reply. "Our organisation is not a Waqf trust. We are registered with the Charity Commissioner. The Waqf Board is claiming it as a trust registered under them in 2024. We are challenging the claim," said Akhtar.

​The cemetery is part of a composite graveyard with sections for Sunnis, Shias, and Dawoodi Bohras. The Sunni cemetery, which has received the notice, is around 150 years old and has around 4,000 graves.

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