By TCN Special Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed a petition by the Bhavnagar-based Ghanchiwad Memon Jamaat Trust, seeking removal of a metalled road constructed through a 400-year-old Muslim graveyard known as Ghanchiwad Qabrastan,
in coastal Bhavnagar town. The graveyard has been in existence for almost 400 years but it was not under use for the last 200 years.
Dismissing the petition, Justice Akil Kureshi pointed out that the petitioner “failed to show any personal right, title or interest in the use of the said land’’.
According to graveyard’s trustee Anwarbhai Hajihussainbhai Memon, the graveyard was not allowed to be used by the then Maharaja of Bhavnagar about 200 years ago because the area had come within the centre of the town. However, the then ruler allotted another piece of land for the qabrastan which is being used by the Muslims till now.
As the graveyard lying unused, the Trust constructed more than dozen shops on one side and rented it out to generate some income for maintaining the graveyard and a mosque within it. The total area of the graveyard is approximately 6,000 square metres.
However, Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to construct a road–300 metres long and 70 ft wide– through the graveyard in year 2002. It was opposed by the trust. The case went to the Bhavnagar City Civil court but the Trust lost it. The trust then moved the Bhavnagar sessions court and there too, the trust failed to get a decree in its favour.
Meanwhile, BMC headed by IAS official Pradeep Sharma began constructing the road in 2008. Sharma was a few months ago suspended and arrested in connection with a land scam of 2001 in Bhuj town of the Kutch district.
The Trust, according to Memon, then approached the Gujarat High Court, seeking a direction to remove the road as it was constructed illegally. Earlier, a public interest petition was also filed in the case but a division bench had dismissed the petition saying that the road had already been constructed two years ago.
Pronouncing judgement on the petition of the trust, Justice Akil Kureshi dismissed the case.