UP court orders Rampur DM to issue certified copies of documents related to Jauhar University

AMROHA: A court here on Friday ordered the district magistrate of Rampur to issue certified copies of the approved building plans and other documents related to Jauhar University. The case will now be heard on October 22, advocate of Jauhar Trust Junaid Ejaz said. Ejaz told the court that the district magistrate is also the vice-chairman of the Rampur Development Authority, but is not making the maps and other evidence available.

After hearing the arguments of Rampur Development Authority counsel Dinesh Chauhan, Divisional Commissioner Sangeeta Singh directed the Rampur DM to issue certified copies of records or maps provided by the Jauhar Trust and to submit any records available with the Trust to the court on the next date of hearing, Ejaz said.

The case relates to an appeal filed by the Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust against a notice issued by the Rampur Development Authority (RDA) on July 15, declaring 38 of the 40 buildings on the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University campus illegal and ordering their demolition.

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Jauhar University illegal building

The appeal was filed before the divisional commissioner's court on July 20. The hearing on the application for admission of the appeal and a stay was initially fixed for July 28. However, due to a lawyers' strike on July 28, the then divisional commissioner heard the matter a day earlier, on July 27, and granted a stay till the appeal was admitted. The next hearing was fixed for August 3. On August 3, the court directed the university to submit relevant documents and fixed August 10 for the next hearing. On August 10, the trust sought the master plan, the zonal development plan, building bye-laws, regulations and other relevant rules from the RDA.

The matter was then listed for August 13. The RDA, however, did not produce the documents sought by the trust, which subsequently submitted that the building maps are available with the Public Works Department and the Rampur district magistrate's office and have already been verified.

14 buildings were constructed by 2008

It stated that 14 campus buildings were constructed by 2008 and another 13 in 2009. The divisional commissioner accepted the application and fixed August 25 for the next hearing. In the meantime, the then divisional commissioner of Moradabad was transferred, and Sangeeta Singh was appointed to the position. No hearing took place on August 25 either.

The court subsequently fixed September 10, but the matter could not be heard then as well. The university, located in Rampur, is managed by the trust headed by Nikhat Aflak, sister of jailed former Uttar Pradesh minister and Samajwadi Party veteran Azam Khan. Khan was previously its chairperson. Khan's elder son, Mohammad Adeeb Azam, is the trust's secretary, while his wife, Tazeen Fatma, is among its trustees.