In a historic moment for the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Hon’ble Bombay High Court dismissed a lawsuit filed a decade ago that aimed to challenge His Holiness Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin’s position as al-Dai al-Mutlaq and leader of the community.
After the demise of His Holiness Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the 52nd al-Dai al-Mutlaq of the Dawoodi Bohra community, on January 17, 2014, his son Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin succeeded him to become the 53rd al-Dai al-Mutlaq. Challenging his succession, his uncle Khuzaima Qutbuddin, the Original Plaintiff, filed a suit in the Hon’ble Bombay High Court on March 28, 2014. When the Original Plaintiff died in 2016, his son, Taher Fakhruddin, was allowed to continue the suit on March 18, 2017, as the Plaintiff. The hearing was concluded on April 5, 2023.
The judgement given by the Hon’ble Justice Gautam Patel a year later on April 23, 2024, after having considered the detailed evidence led and the elaborate arguments advanced by both the parties, conclusively held that the 52nd Dai Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin had appointed his son Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin as his successor and the 53rd Dai.
The Hon’ble Judge said that the decision was based on evidence rather than faith, emphasising the importance of furnishing proof in accordance with the law once a person comes to a ‘secular civil court’. The judgement states that the Plaintiff, Taher Fakhruddin, was unable to prove his claim of the conferral of nass (designation as successor) by the 52nd Dai on his father, the Original Plaintiff. The evidence put forth by Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin’s legal representatives, on the other hand, proved that the 52nd Dai had conferred nass upon Syedna Saifuddin on four separate occasions.
The Dawoodi Bohra community around the world rejoiced at this legal triumph—that the Hon’ble Court upheld the position and rights of their leader, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, and dismissed the misleading portrayal put forward by the Plaintiffs regarding the facts in issue and the history and doctrines of the community. Throughout this period of ten years, the Dawoodi Bohra community has placed unwavering faith in Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, whose guidance continues to take the community forward in all its endeavours.
