The Madras High Court Bench here has set aside the appointment of AMM Kadar Baksh Husain Siddigi as Kazi of Ramanathapuram revenue division after doubting his academic qualifications and wondering how could he have obtained a degree of ‘Aalim Fazil’ from an Arabic college in Keelakarai after studying for just one year.
In a judgement reserved here and delivered in the principal seat in Chennai, Justices V. Ramasubramanian and N. Kirubakaran said: “We do not know how a degree could be offered after undergoing a course for a duration of one year… Therefore, the claim of acquiring a degree, which has also been accepted by the government, appears to be incorrect.”
The observations were made by the judges while allowing a writ appeal filed by VVA Salahudeen Aalim, whose territorial jurisdiction was shrunk from entire Ramanathapuram district to just Paramakudi revenue division in order to accommodate Mr. Siddigi as the second Kazi for the district and make him in-charge of Ramanathapuram revenue division.
The judges said that there were many contradictions in the claims made by Mr. Siddigi since even as per documents produced by him a degree could be obtained either in Aalim or Fazil. Further, the college had complicated the issue by filing a counter affidavit through its principal and claiming that he had studied in their institution between September 2009 and August 2010.
Subsequently, the appellant filed an affidavit stating that the counter affidavit had been filed by S. Abdul Nazar Jamali who was the principal (in-charge) of the college long back and not at the time of filing of counter affidavit. “In the light of such a shocking revelation, we directed the Director of the college to appear in person before this court… but he did not appear.
“The degree course allegedly undergone by the 4{+t}{+h}respondent (Mr. Siddigi) is also not of a duration of three years. Therefore it appears that the 4th respondent secured the appointment as Kazi on the basis of a false claim and attempted to justify the same before this court by filing a false affidavit through the third respondent (college),” the Bench concluded.
A single judge of the High Court had initially dismissed a writ petition filed by Mr. Salahudeen on the ground that the appointment of a second Kazi for a district was well within the powers of the government.
However in appeal, senior counsel M. Ajmal Khan, appearing for the appellant, contended that the judge failed to see that the new appointee was not qualified to hold the post.
He also stated that a person to be appointed as Kazi should be an Aalim or a Fazil, well-versed in Islamic jurisprudence or he should have served as a professor or teacher in any recognised Arabic college or an equivalent educational institution.
