Mumbai: A Hindu organisation has moved the Bombay High Court with an intervention application in the long-running dispute over the religious identity of the Malangad–Haji Malang shrine near Kalyan, alleging that the site continues to be administered as a Muslim religious trust despite existing court injunctions. The plea seeks the court’s intervention in the ongoing legal battle over the status and management of the historic hilltop shrine.
The shrine, located in Ambernath taluk of Thane district, has for decades been the subject of competing claims regarding its status and management. The latest application raises fresh allegations about the handling of the site and alleged interference in its administration.
According to a representation submitted by concerned parties, the shrine was recorded in 1952 as a Sarva Dharmiya (multi-faith) place of worship by Gopalrao Ketkar and registered with the Thane charity authorities. Historically, the shrine has been associated with practices and rituals reflecting a syncretic tradition observed by both Hindu and Muslim devotees.
Muslims venerate the site as the tomb of Pir Haji Malang Baba, a Sufi mystic believed to have lived around 700 to 800 years ago.
The dispute over its identity is said to have intensified after Mohan Anant Gokhale of Pune, associated with the Nath sect, studied the shrine’s rituals and cultural traditions and concluded that it functioned as a Nath Panth initiation seat rather than a dargah.
Based on this interpretation, Gokhale filed a representative suit in the Thane District Court in 1982 seeking recognition of the shrine as a Hindu religious institution and requesting a change in its registration classification. Documentary evidence was reportedly submitted in support of the claim.
During the proceedings, Nasir Khan, a trustee, approached the court seeking dismissal of the suit under provisions of the Special Waqf Act, 1981. Although the district court rejected the plea, he later moved the Bombay High Court and obtained a stay on the trial.
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Advocate Saeed Akhtar, representing Khan, said that although the shrine was registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950, Muslim religious endowments were subsequently transferred to newly constituted Waqf Boards. He added that a trustees’ meeting in 2003 passed a resolution to register the shrine as waqf property and that a registration certificate was obtained.
“All Muslim trusts were automatically transferred to Waqf. Opposing this is opposing the law,” Akhtar said.
Followers of Gokhale challenged the listing after noticing it in a government gazette in 2005 and filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court in 2006.
Kaushik Mhatre, advocate for Sakal Hindu Samaj, alleged that despite interim court orders and contempt applications filed in 2015 and 2022, administrative intervention by waqf authorities has continued.
The representation further claims that disputes involving certain individuals connected with the shrine have created tensions in the area and caused difficulties for devotees visiting the site. The final hearing in the dispute is expected in April.
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