Dawoodi Bohra succession: Court dismisses challenger's claim, upholds current leadership

Once a person approaches a secular civil court, his rank in a religious sect or faith is immaterial, and hence there is no exemption from the requirement of proof because a person held the highest rank in a faith, the judge said.Once a person comes to the court, no matter who she or he is, the case must be proven in accordance with law, Justice Patel added.The judge also noted that in 1965, the 52nd Dai was 51 years old while Qutbuddin was in his 20s.

Upholding the appointment of Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin as 53rd Dai al-Mutlaq (leader) of the Dawoodi Bohra community, the Bombay High Court has said the rival claimant to the position could not produce any proof. Once a person comes before a civil court, he or she can not seek any concession regarding the requirement of proof to establish the case, whatever the person's standing in a religious sect may be, the court said. Justice Gautam Patel on Tuesday dismissed a 2014 suit, filed by Khuzaima Qutbuddin soon after his brother and then Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin died in January 2014 at the age of 102.

Burhanuddin's second son Mufaddal Saifuddin took over as the 53rd Syedna after the former's death.

After Qutbuddin died in 2016, his son Taher Fakhruddin took over the suit, seeking to restrain Saifuddin from discharging duties as Syedna.

In the 226-page judgment that was made available on Wednesday, the high court said the plaintiff failed to submit any proof to establish that Qutbuddin was conferred with `nass' (appointment) by the 52nd Dai.

Qutbuddin had claimed in his suit that his brother Burhanuddin appointed him as `mazoon' (second-in-command) and privately anointed him as successor through a secret `nass' on December 10, 1965.

Justice Patel, however, noted that in this meeting only the 52nd Dai and plaintiff Qutbuddin were allegedly present.

''We are asked to accept his evidence that others understood but no one ever witnessed this private, unwitnessed nass. We will never know if the 52nd Dai ever said in private the words to the Original Plaintiff (Qutbuddin) that he claims. We do not even know if they met in private,'' the judge added.

''There is no record of either; in itself odd from a community of inveterate record-keepers,'' the HC observed. Once a person approaches a secular civil court, his rank in a religious sect or faith is immaterial, and hence there is no exemption from the requirement of proof because a person held the highest rank in a faith, the judge said.

Once a person comes to the court, no matter who she or he is, the case must be proven in accordance with law, Justice Patel added.

The judge also noted that in 1965, the 52nd Dai was 51 years old while Qutbuddin was in his 20s. ''It is extremely unlikely that the 52nd Dai, even before he took his pledge of allegiance, would be in contemplation of a period after his lifetime, and he lived for nearly another half-century,'' the court said.

It also refused to accept the plaintiff's claim that the 52nd Dai was in a vegetative stage in the later years, and hence could not possibly have made an appointment of a successor.

Justice Patel noted that between 1969 to 2011, on four occasions the 52nd Dai, in the presence of witnesses, declared that his successor would be Saifuddin.

After the 2011 meeting where nass was conferred upon Saifuddin, the 52nd Dai went on to live for two and a half years, and during that time he was seen in public meetings and discourses. The plaintiff's claim that a vegetative Dai was being carted around was an ''egregious attack on a fundamental tenet of the faith and the belief in the Dai,'' the court said.

''An overall assessment of the 52nd Dai in 2011 is not one of a comatose mind man,'' the judge said. Dawoodi Bohras are a religious denomination of Shia Muslims. Traditionally a community of traders and entrepreneurs, it has more than five lakh members in India and over 10 lakh across the world.

A ''nass'' can be conferred upon any deserving member of the community and not necessarily a family member of the current Dai, although the latter is often the practice.

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