Bombay HC Reserves Suit For Order In Dawoodi Bohra Dai Dispute

In the case of Taher Fakhruddin Saheb V. Mufassal Burhanuddin Saifuddin, the Bombay High Court has finally reserved its verdict. This is pertaining to the leadership of the Dawoodi Bohra community in which the plaintiff Khuzaima Qutbuddin had filed a suit in 2014, after the demise of  Mohammad Burhanuddin, the 52nd community leader to restore his position as the 53rd community leader.

According to the plaintiff, who is also the half brother of Burhanuddin, he was made the community leader by a secret conferment( nass) and that the son of the deceased community leader, Mufaddal Saifuddin who was the 53rd leader cannot hold the position.

The concerned plaintiff died in 2016 and the current plaintiff is his son, Taher Fakhruddin. A bench of Justice GS Patel had reserved the hearing of the suit on 5 April 2023. Qutbuddin in his original plaint had mentioned how he was made the ‘second in command’ to the 52nd Syedna and would have become the Syedna after his demise. However, the communication that happened in 1965 was private and hence not known to others. The deceased Syedna’s son, Saifuddin was alleged to have fraudulently taken over the position which was refuted by him and he claimed that the nass has been conferred in a hospital in London in 2011 by his late father, which was also conferred in Mumbai later in a public event. Justice GS Patel reserved the suit for order after a long period of hearing for 46 days, which happened after the working hours of Justice Patel’s court.