By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
New Delhi: The Dargah Committee of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer should not be treated as a charitable trust or religious organization because it is an industry, a city labour court ruled last week.
The order came on February 6 in a case involving a dargah employee, dismissed by the committee over a decade ago, say media reports. The labour and industry tribunal has overruled the compulsory retirement of Bhanwar Lal, who worked at the Dargah as a cleaner for 25 years, and asked the committee to take him back and pay him 25% of his salary for the period he was jobless.
In 1997, according to the case diary, Bhanwar Lal, the cleaner, went on long leave which was sanctioned by the committee. He returned after 11 months to join duty, but the Nazim of the Dargah Committee refused to take him back and asked him to retire.
Nazim of the Dargah Committee pleaded before the tribunal that the committee was a religious trust and therefore it should not come under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. But the tribunal said the Dargah Committee, which is taking care of the dargah, had huge properties in Ajmer. It is also running a restaurant and guesthouse in the dargah region and it takes rent from several shops. There are about 150 employees in the committee and they too have a union. The committee, therefore, comes under the definition of industry under section 2(j) of the Industrial Dispute Act of 1947, the tribunal observed.
The Dargah Committee is considering challenging the order in the High Court.
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The Dargah Committee was constituted by the Government of India under the provisions of the Dargah Khwaja Saheb Act, 1955. It controls and manages affairs of Dargah Sharif and the Dargah Endowments. The following services are performed by this committee regularly. The committee makes arrangements of Urs of Khwaja saheb and his Peer-o-Murshid every year and ensures regular maintenance, repairing and renovation of Dargah Sharif and its endowments. It also accepts donations from devotees for these works. The donations are exempted under section 80 (G) (2) (b) of Income Tax Act, 1961.