Challenging decisions of a waqf endowment office in Iraq

In briefThere is no single route for challenging everything an endowment office issues. Trustee-audit committee decisions are objected to before the office council within ten days of notification; other administrative decisions go through a grievance within thirty days and then an appeal to the Administrative Court within sixty days; trusteeship of family endowments belongs to the Personal Status Court; and judgments against endowments go to cassation automatically.

A person who receives a decision from an endowment directorate, whether to vacate property, refusing a building request, or holding a trustee liable, first asks: where do I object, and within how many days? The answer depends on the kind of decision and the text under which it was issued. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, follows these routes for people who want to challenge a decision of the Sunni, Shia, or Christian, Yazidi and Sabean Mandaean endowment office.

Decisions of trustee-audit committees

Article 4(4) of the Endowments Administration Law No. 64 of 1966 forms committees chaired by a judge to audit trustees and examine their conduct and complaints against them. A committee decision is not taken straight to the courts: the trustee's objection goes to the council of the endowment body, the ten-day window under article 4(5) opens the day after he is notified, and the council's ruling is then carried out through the execution offices. Article 7(V) of both the Sunni Endowment Office Law No. 56 of 2012 and the Shia Endowment Office Law No. 57 of 2012 makes hearing such objections a power of the office council. This is the shortest time limit in the field and the one most often missed.

General administrative decisions

Other decisions the offices issue as administrative bodies, such as an eviction order under article 13 of the Endowments Administration Law or the refusal of a request, follow the general rules on administrative challenge. Article 7 of the State Consultative Council Law No. 65 of 1979, as amended by Law No. 17 of 2013, requires a grievance to the issuing body within thirty days of notification before an appeal to the Administrative Court; the body must decide within thirty days of registering the grievance, and the appeal is then filed within sixty days of actual or deemed rejection. These periods are set out in detail in the time limit for appeal to the Administrative Court. The administrative appeal is not the route where the law draws a special one, such as the objection to an audit committee decision.

The Personal Status Court

A dispute over the person of the trustee himself, whether in a family endowment or over his nomination to a charitable or mixed one, including his removal or a demand that he render accounts, belongs to the Personal Status Court under article 300(4) of the Civil Procedure Law No. 83 of 1969. A beneficiary objecting to a trustee goes to that court, not to the office council. See appointing and removing a trustee.

Automatic cassation of judgments against endowments

Article 309 of the Civil Procedure Law requires judgments against endowments, and judgments in substitution deeds, to be sent automatically to the Federal Court of Cassation; they are not carried out before being upheld. A judgment someone wins against an endowment office is therefore not enforced at once; it awaits cassation review.

Liquidation judgments for Sunni family endowments

Article 11 of Decree No. 1 of 1955 permitting the liquidation of family endowments allows only one route against a liquidation judgment: cassation, within a thirty-day window that opens after pronouncement or notification, followed at most by a limited request to correct the cassation ruling.

What to prepare before objecting

Before any challenge, gather a copy of the decision and its date of notification, which is what the time limit runs from, the contract or deed it concerns, and earlier correspondence with the directorate. Then identify the text under which the decision was issued, because that text draws the route. If the decision is an eviction order, see leasing endowed property.

Legal basis and sources

Frequently asked questions

How long does a trustee have to object to an audit committee decision?

Ten days from the day after notification, before the council of the endowment body, under article 4(5) of the Endowments Administration Law.

Is an eviction order for endowed property challenged before the Administrative Court?

An administrative decision goes through a grievance within thirty days and then an appeal within sixty days of rejection, under article 7 of the amended State Consultative Council Law.

Is a judgment against an endowment office enforced immediately?

No. It is sent automatically to the Federal Court of Cassation and is not carried out before being upheld, under article 309 of the Civil Procedure Law.

Where does one object to the trustee of a family endowment?

Before the Personal Status Court, under article 300(4) of the Civil Procedure Law.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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Challenging decisions of the competent endowment office