Bombay High Court

Mohiuddin Ahmed Vaid vs State Of Maharashtra Through Its ... on 6 August, 2025

Author: Revati Mohite Dere

Bench: Revati Mohite Dere

Digitally
signed by
SHAGUFTA
SHAGUFTA QUTBUDDIN
QUTBUDDIN PATHAN
PATHAN Date:
2025.08.07 901-WP-1731-2025.doc
10:41:17
+0530

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION

WRIT PETITION NO.1731 OF 2025

Mohiuddin Ahmed Vaid ... Petitioner
Versus
The State of Maharashtra, Through Its
Principal Secretary Minority
Development Department ... Respondents

Ms. Sana Y. Baugwala a/w Ms. Vidhya N. Shet, Mr. Daanish M.
Vaid, Mr. Mohiyuddin Y. Baugwala and Mr. Yusuf S. Baugwala
i/by Vaid and Associates, for the Petitioner

Mr. Rajiv Chavan, Sr. Advocate a/w Ms. Jaymala Ostwal, Mr. Ishwar,
Ms. Asmi Desai, Ms. Sonam Pandey, Ms Rashmi Tiwari and
Ms. Nikita Lad, for the Respondent No.1

Ms. Rebecca Gonsalvez, for the Respondent No. 2

Ms. Leena Patil, for the Respondent Nos. 3 and 4

Mr. Ruches Jaivanshi, Secretary, Minorities Development
Department - is present through VC

Mr. Mirza K. Baig, Asst. Superintendent, Maharashtra State Waqf
Tribunal, is present in court

CORAM : REVATI MOHITE DERE &
DR. NEELA GOKHALE, JJ.

WEDNESDAY, 6th AUGUST 2025

901-WP-1731-2025.doc

P.C :

1 Pursuant to our order dated 5th August 2025, Mr.

Chavan, learned senior counsel appearing for respondent No.1,

has taken instructions and submitted a chart detailing the current

status of the various requirements sought to be provided for the

Maharashtra State Waqf Tribunal, as on 6 th August 2025. Mr.

Chavan, learned senior counsel has tendered the said Chart. The

same is reproduced hereinbelow for convenience:

            Sr.                                          Status/Comments of the
                      Requirements
            No.                                                Department
              A) Web Portal
            1.       Creation          of       an    Website    for   the  tribunal
                     independent,            fully     developed by the NIC will be
                     functional website/portal         launched within 2 weeks, once
                     for the Waqf Tribunal
                                                       DIT allots and confirms the
                     with       facilities     for
                     uploading the cause lists,        domain          URL        i.e.
                     link/s       for      video-      www.waqftribunal.maharashtra.
                     conferencing and live-            gov.in
                     streaming, case status,          Letter for registration of
                     daily orders, judgments,          domain for Waqf tribunal is
                     notices, calendar, etc.           issued on 5.08.2025

 Following services will be available from the date of launch of website :-

901-WP-1731-2025.doc

Sr. Status/Comments of the Requirements No. Department  Case status  Judgments/orders passed by the tribunal  VC link uploading  Notices  Roznama

Complete facilities for Hardware required for video video conferencing and conferencing are made available. live-streaming to be Any hardware required for the

2. ensured.

same will be made available within 1 month from day of demand made by the tribunal.

Adequate security for the Website which is to be launched is website, video- developed by the NIC. conferencing and live- Government websites are launched

3. streaming after due scrutiny and NOC of the Department of IT. Security audit of the website has been done.

B) Staff Creation of the post of,  The department has studied and appointment of a staffing pattern of Maharashtra

4. qualified System Administrative Tribunal (MAT) Officer/Administrator for and it is observed that there the Waqf Tribunal on urgent basis. may not be a need to create

5. Until such time as the new post for system officer/ aforesaid appointment is administrator urgently.







                                                                  901-WP-1731-2025.doc


            Sr.                                   Status/Comments of the
                           Requirements
            No.                                         Department

made, as suggested by the  Training has been given to Minority Development Clerical staff for the same and it Department, a System is being done by the staff.

Officer could be  MAT has multiple VC rooms.

appointed by the Waqf Tribunal on contract basis. Waqf tribunal has single VC The System Officer will unit. need to be paid a salary  Therefore, there is no on par with System requirement of creation of Officers appointed for the separate post for just creating District Courts, i.e. Rs. link and accepting VC request. 40,000/- per month. The  There are 8 clerical staff salary and the cost of advertisements for making approved for waqf tribunal. this contractual Clerk can be trained for the appointment would need same or Tribunal can appoint a to be borne by the clerical staff on contractual Minority Development basis for the same. It can be Department. However, it done under Rs 25000/- per must be noted that the month.

Bombay High Court had by the Order dated  Government will bear cost for 6/2/2024 passed in PIL the same. No.15/2021, directed the State not to appoint any staff in the Waqf Tribunal on contractual basis, and to follow the Civil Manual for recruitments (Para 8 of the order).

C) Case Information System (CIS)

6. Case Information System  Work order for development (CIS) of the Tribunal to be of website was allotted to

901-WP-1731-2025.doc

Sr. Status/Comments of the Requirements No. Department completed immediately, NICSI on 28.02.2022. NICSI since it was not developed selected M/s Silver Touch over the last 3 years by Technologies Ltd. for the same.

M/s Silver Touch The website as per original Technologies Ltd.

work order is ready to launch. CIS has to be compatible  There are some modifications with the system developed in website are suggested by the by the Bombay High Chairman, Waqf tribunal.

                  Court      for    ensuring
                                                 The Department is in touch
                  seamless       connectivity
                  between the High Court          with NIC team for making
                  and the Tribunal.               such changes.

 As these recommendations are out of the scope of original work order and required

7. expenses of about Rs 30 lakhs NIC has been directed to publish tender for the same.

 Required time frame to complete the work after work order- (Total 9 weeks) Development of website work (6 weeks) Testing (2 week) Approval and launch (1 week) D) Hardware

8. Two (2) scanner machines,  2 TV's of 65 inches are already two (2) photocopier installed in the Tribunal. machines with  Government has not received multifunction systems, 32 proposal for the purchase of inch TV for the bench to

901-WP-1731-2025.doc

Sr. Status/Comments of the Requirements No. Department avail of the video- scanner machines and separate conferencing facility. TV unit.

 3 Samsung tablets for the members to access online filed applications already provided.

                                           Six     Microphones         already
                                            provided.
                                           Two 360 degree cameras for
                                            the     verification      of     the
                                            Witnesses and
                                           However,           the         State
                                            Government           will       give

administrative approval for purchase of these items within 1 month of receiving complete proposal. The tribunal should purchase items as per norms.

Funds will be made available. Server to store data. Online server to store all data is already in place MahaIT. The same was made available vide a Work order for the same which was

9. issued on 14.10.2024. this was done to support the Website which is already created and ready to be launched hence the server facility was availed before even the website was created

10. Online UPS 5kVA for the The State Government will give

901-WP-1731-2025.doc

Sr. Status/Comments of the Requirements No. Department court hall, with batteries administrative approval for to support the video purchase of these items within 2- 3 conferencing facility. weeks days of receiving complete proposal. Funds will be made available.

High speed internet, with Currently there is 300 MBPS WIFI a minimum speed of 50 is setup, which is provided by MBPS BSNL. For any upgradation in the

11. internet speed/change in internet plan a request to the internet service provider can be made by the Tribunal.

Any other facilities As mentioned above, approval to required to fully facilitate purchase all hardware will be video- conferencing, live- given within 1 month from the streaming, functioning of date of complete proposal sent by the website, and the CIS. tribunal. Funds will be made available.

                                                           Website will be launched
                                                  within     2     Weeks.     Further
            12.                                   Development          and        any

upgradation/ improvement is a ongoing process which can be done from time to time.

Integration of cloud, e-courts and Tribunal's website will be made within 8-9 weeks once CIS is set up by NIC/NICSI Tier-1A empaneled agency takes steps.

901-WP-1731-2025.doc

2 From the aforesaid Chart, it appears that the State

Government is taking steps to ensure compliance with the

requirements of the Maharashtra State Waqf Tribunal. Timelines

have also been indicated therein for each item.

3 Mr. Ruches Jaivanshi, Secretary, Minorities

Development Department, has appeared before us through video-

conferencing and has assured the Court that the timelines

indicated in the Chart shall be adhered to.

4 At this stage, Ms. Rebecca Gonsalvez, learned counsel

appearing for the Waqf Tribunal, submits that the Tribunal will

communicate its remaining requirements to the State Government