Chennai: The Madras high court stayed the operation of a resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, by which the chairman is to be paid a honorarium of Rs 50,000 per month with retrospective effect from the date of his election as chairman.

Justice V. Ramasubramanian also ordered notice, returnable by two weeks, to the state government, TN Wakf Board and Janab Tamizhmagan Hussain, chairman of the TN Wakf Board, on a petition filed by A.K. Rafi Baig, a person interested in the affairs of wakfs in Tamil Nadu.

“In the meantime, there will be an interim stay of the impugned order passed by the chairman of the Wakf Board in a self-serving order passed for his own benefit and that, too, with retrospective effect,” the judge added.

According to the petitioner, the Wakf Act provides the manner in which the board has to be constituted, its various functions and the powers vested with it. The Act provides for payment of allowances to the chairman and members of the board.

However, a resolution was passed at a meeting on October 24, 2013, presided over by the chairman, that the chairman was to be paid a honorarium of Rs 50,000 per month with retrospective effect from the date of his election as chairman.

The resolution was against the provisions of the Act since nowhere in the Act was payment of honorarium or remuneration to the chairman of the board permitted.