Jauhar Trust approaches SC against termination of lease

New Delhi, Oct 11 (IANS) The Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust has filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to terminate Rampur Public School’s lease.

Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had refused to interfere with the decision of the state government or grant any relief claimed by the petitioner trust.

“Even if the impugned decision of the state government is assumed to be suffering from some procedural irregularity, any interference by this court would result in revival of an absolutely illegal grant,” said a Bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Gupta and Kshitij Shailendra in its decision passed on March 18 this year.

The Special Leave Petition filed by the Jauhar Trust is slated to be heard by a Bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on October 14, as per the apex court’s causelist.

In an earlier round of litigation, the Supreme Court had asked the Allahabad High Court to give an urgent hearing on the trust’s plea challenging termination of lease.

The top court, in December last year, ordered that the application seeking an urgent interim relief against sealing of premises will be considered by a Bench presided over by the Acting Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of the Jauhar Trust, pleaded that the High Court kept the interim application pending and proceeded to hear the writ petition and reserved the judgment.

Later, the High Court released the matter saying that it requires to be heard afresh.

The Rampur Public School's lease had expired in January 2023 and accordingly, the minorities welfare officer of Rampur had directed that the building be vacated.

When the school building was not vacated, the Rampur district administration sealed the entire premises.

Against this, the executive committee of the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust had moved the Allahabad High Court with a demand to quash the decision of the district administration.