Hyderabad: Enthused by the recent High Court’s landmark judgment which ruled that 1,654 acres of prime land allotted to several multinational companies including Lanco Hills on the outskirts of Hyderabad were very much part of the Wakf property, the State Wakf Board has decided to fight the case in Supreme Court. The Board has filed a caveat in the apex court to restrain the companies concerned from challenging the High Court order.
Top sources in Wakf Board and Minority Welfare Department told The Hans India that the Board plunged into action immediately after the court direction. State Minority Welfare Minister Mohd Ahmadullah Syed called for an emergency meeting of the Wakf Board and asked the Board Chairman Ghulam Mohd Afzal Biyabani to take legal opinion and file petition in the Supreme Court.
The sources said that based on the minister’s directions, the Board immediately filed a caveat on Wednesday in the Supreme Court. Sources said that the Board has appointed top most lawyer in the country as its advocate to argue the case in the Supreme Court. However, he declined to reveal the name of the lawyer.
The Board will also hold meetings with legal luminaries to discuss in detail the High Court’s direction and its judgment at its head office from today. After the detailed study, the Board will file petitions in the court, if necessary. It was 1,654.79 acres of land, belonged to Dargah Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali, a Wakf institution, has been given to several companies including Microsoft, Infosys, Wipro, Polaris and Emaar Properties. The cost of the land is estimated at around Rs 32,000 crore.
The court ruled that the government has no authority to give Wakf land to others. Once a land is declared as Wakf land, it remains so forever and its nature or character can’t be changed. The land to the MNCs was allotted by the then government of N Chandrababu Naidu through Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). Dubai-based realty major Emaar Properties was allotted 400 acres for an integrated township and golf course.
The Wakf Board officials said that software giant Microsoft got 54.79 acres, Infosys-50 acres, Wipro-30 acres, Polaris-7.89 acres, and Lanco Hills-108.10 acres.
Except Lanco Hills, all others have completed the constructions on the land. Lanco Hills, which was allotted the land by YS Rajasekhara Reddy government, is building $1.5 billion mega project comprising residential area, IT towers in the Special Economic Zone, retail and hospitality. The ownership dispute between the Lanco and others and the Wakf Board was on since 2007.
Other Wakf Lands under encroachment
According to official records, the total extent of Wakf Land in Greater Hyderabad limits was around 7,000 acres. Over 75 per cent of the land has been lost by encroachments and the government handed over them to private companies for what they called development purpose.
For instance, 1,100 acres of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad belonged to Baba Sharfuddin Pahadi dargah, popularly known as Pahadi Sharif. The records said that 62 acres of the Nehru Zoological Park was owned by Wakf Board. In Miyapur, over 40 acres have been lost to encroachments where new residential and commercial complexes have been constructed. Another 80 acres of land at Kondapur had also been lost. At Attapur, 70 acres of land and 500 acres belonging to Mir Mahmood Pahadi Dargah was also encroached.
As per the recent second survey on Wakf Lands conducted by the State government, in Ranga Reddy district alone the total extent of land owned by the Wakf Board was 14,800 acres and the total number of properties was 3,900. Over 60 per cent have been encroached in the districts. In Hyderabad, the reports said that 3,208 properties measuring up to 1,469 acres of land was in the name of Wakf Board. But, over 70 per cent of the lands have been encroached in the 60 years.
The sources said that Malan Shah Baba Dargah in Rajendranagar has lost more than 14 acres to land grabbers, 15 acres of Maqbara-e-Walajah Jagir in Asif Nagar and another 30 acres of the Dervesh Mohiuddin Quadri Dargah were snatched.
As many as 1,100 Wakf Land cases were pending in courts out of which 100 are in the Supreme Court, 300 in the High Court and the remaining cases were pending in different local civil courts in the districts. The Wakf Board has won only eight of the 296 cases.
Based on the new Wakf Act which came into force in 1995 by replacing the old act enforced in 1955, AP State Wakf Board was constituted under provisions of the new Act in July 1996.
The State has the distinction of being the first State in the country to have framed election rules under this Act and conducted elections. The Board has also the distinction of being a first Board in the country to have been constituted under the provisions of the new Act.
In the erstwhile Hyderabad State, all religious matters including endowments and Wakf institutions were being administered and controlled by the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs known as Umoore-Mazhabi. The Central Wakf Act, 1954 was approved by the Parliament in May, 1954 and the said Act was extended to Hyderabad on January, 1955 and to the whole of State in April, 1955.
The then Raj Pramukh (Nizam) established a Board to look after exclusively the affairs of Wakf under the name and style of Muslim Wakf Board by notification which became effective from 1955.
–Agencies