JEDDAH, 17 June — The Appeals Court has upheld the plea of the International Indian School, Jeddah (IISJ) and asked the High Court to review its verdict on the ownership of the land and building that houses the school’s boys section.
The High Court had recently dismissed IISJ’s claim and upheld the school’s lease contract which says that Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Maimani, builder of the structure is the owner of the land and building. The court had also directed the school to continue paying the annual lease payment to Al-Maimani.
The school’s management committee challenged the verdict in the Appeals Court.
The school had already paid the builder over SR30 million but SR6.8 million was still due when the school took Al-Maimani to court in the year 2000 since when no cash was paid out.
Before moving the court, IISJ Chairman Abdul Rahim had told parents through a circular that “relevant records were not available either in the school or the Indian Consulate to evaluate and justify the payments demanded by the builder.”
Till the handing over of the building to the school, on Sept. 12, 1994, an amount of SR18,912,789.70 was paid to Maimani which covered more than the cost of the land and the structure, the school says.
Further, SR11,873,646.00 was paid to the builder in due course of time “without any justification”, the school contended.
A letter was issued to the builder by the school requesting him to provide supporting documents about his claim which he failed to deliver.
It should be noted that the owner of the land Abdullah A. Bajaber in both his written and oral testimony in the High Court had accepted that he had received the entire amount from the school.
IISJ believes that it lost the case in the High Court on the strength of an affidavit filed by the Indian Embassy First Secretary Zikrur Rehman against the interest of the school.
However, the Appeals Court ignored the affidavit. The school committee had appointed one of its members, Chaudhry Basharatullah to pursue the case in court. But differences cropped up later on among the MC members on whether to pursue or drop the case. After the High Court’s judgment, some members did not even want to appeal the verdict.
Basharatullah then filed an appeal on his own without waiting for the managing committee’s final decision on the issue.
The Appeals Court in Makkah while ruling on the appeal returned the High Court judgment and directed it to reconsider some of the vital evidence produced by the school.
IISJ claims the school building was built on a piece of land purchased under an agreement signed by the Indian Consulate, Jeddah, on behalf of the school, and the owner of the land Bajaber.
The school committee alleged that the consulate in violation of the agreement issued two checks in the name of a third person (Mahmood Ahmed Al-Maimani), and also registered the property in his name. The school also claimed that there was no paper available to substantiate Maimani’s claim and hence, to justify payments.