SHC wants Clifton community hall unsealed, handed over to Hindu body

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday directed the South District Municipal Corporation (DMC) to unseal a community hall located in the Clifton neighbourhood and hand it over to a Hindu community body for running its affairs.

The direction came on a petition of the Kathiawari Harijan Sindh Welfare Jamaat against dispossession at the hands of the South DMC administration. The petitioner’s counsel said the community hall had been allotted to the petitioner’s body in the 1990s for the purpose of holding Hindu community’s ceremonies.

He said the DMC officials had sealed the community centre without any prior notice, and directed the petitioner to make a deal with some political bigwigs of the city to settle the dispute.

He also said the petitioner’s rights have been violated due to the actions of the DMC officials, and requested the court to restore the possession of the community hall constructed on the ground floor by unsealing it.

The court was informed that the community centre had been sealed over complaints made by some members of the Harijan community after being annoyed with the conduct of the petitioner, so the premises was sealed to avoid any clash.

In a previous hearing the court had appointed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) to resolve the controversy. The amicus curiae suggested that the affairs of the community centre can be managed by the Patels of the Kathiawari Harijan communities.

He also filed a statement naming the 12 Patels of the Kathiawari Harijan Hindu Panchayat and proposed the names of seven Patels for the constitution of a committee to run the affairs of the community centre.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput constituted a seven-member committee comprising different communities, with the consent of the parties, to run the affairs of the community centre.

The court observed that the parties had agreed that in the case of tendering resignation or death of any member of the community, the remaining members would elect seven members from the Patels of the Panchayat or Jamaat within 30 days of resignation or death.