Hyderabad, March 29: The Waqf Tribunal order came as a major relief to the Andhra Pradesh State Waqf Board in the case of Manikonda Jagir of Dargah Hazrat Husain Shah Wali. The property is worth 30000 crores admeasuring 1654 acres of land.
The Waqf tribunal on Monday giving a historical judgment in O S No: 7 of I A No: 24 of 2011 issued injunction restraining several multinational companies and national corporate houses including Lanco Hills from transferring the property in their possession.
The Tribunal presiding officer Syed Anwaruddin in an order issued late night granted injunction restraining the institutions established on the said property against the sale, alienation, transfer, mortgage, exchange and lease of the property.
Though right now it is not possible for Waqf board to get back the said property by this order, yet the order can have positive effects on the case of the valuable property which is under trial in High Court.
The administrative committee of Dargah Hazrat Husain Shah Wali had filed a case in 2010 appealing to issue stay orders on the construction and other proceedings on the said property. Consequently Waqf tribunal had passed status quo order.
It should be recalled that the AP High Court in 1959 had declared in a writ petition No. 666 that the land under Manikonda jagir belonged to the state Wakf Board. The state government later issued a gazette notification identifying the land as that of the state Wakf Board.
Much to the chagrin of the Wakf Board, the state allocated the land to a number of IT firms saying that the land was part of the inam jagir, and hence it belonged to the revenue department. But the Wakf Board says its lands are exempted under the Jagir Abolition Act. “It is a Wakf property notified in the state Gazette.”
When the Lanco Hills had announced its project on Manikonda jagir releasing advertisements of three three pages, Siasat daily on the next day itself had exposed that the said project was being constructed on Waqf properties. This revelation had rocked the city.
On the ground of that news the then TRS MLC Habeeb Abdur Rahman Alatas approached High Court and a single bench issued stay order on the construction of Lanco Hills. However the division bench vacated the status quo order of the single bench and permitted to continue the constructions.
LHTPL filed a petition seeking vacation of the status quo order imposed by the tribunal. The court had said that the case should be heard and disposed of by February 28.
Eventually the state Waqf Tribunal on Monday granted injunction restraining Lanco Hills Technology Park Ltd and other respondents in the Manikonda Jagir case from transferring the property in their possession.
Ather Moin