In a significant decision, a division bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday (10th October) held that the Kerala Waqf Board’s decision to declare the disputed land in Munambam a waqf property was “bad in law” and was a “land-grabbing tactic”.
A Division Bench of Justices SA Dharmadhikari and Justice Syam Kumar VM also set aside the order of a Single Bench passed in March this year, quashing the Kerala government’s decision ordering the formation of an inquiry commission to examine the rights of about 600 families facing eviction from the disputed land. The decision was passed by a Single Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas after members of the Waqf Samrakshana Samithi challenged the state government’ order before the High Court.
The dispute relates to around 404 acres of land located in the coastal region of Munambam in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. It houses around 600 families, primarily of Christians from the Latin Catholic community and Hindus from backward sections, who have been residing there for decades. In 2019, the disputed land was declared as the waqf property by the Kerala Waqf Board based on a 1950 waqf deed executed by one Mohammed Siddeeq Sait, which dedicated the land to the management of the Farook College of Kozhikode. The resident families, however, opposed the Waqf Board’s claim, saying that they own the legal rights to the land as they bought it decades ago from Farook College, which was once entrusted with its management.
Waqf Board’s decision was a land-grabbing tactic: HC
The High Court described the Kerala Waqf Board’s actions as “land-grabbing tactics”, which resulted in the livelihoods of the resident families being affected. “We shall be holding that the notification dated 25.09.2019 notifying the subject property as waqf is ultra vires the provisions of The Waqf Act, 1954, as also The Central Waqf Act, 1995 and nothing less than a land grabbing tactics of KWB which has affected the bread and butter, livelihood of hundreds of families and bonafide occupants who had purchased tranches of land decades prior to the notification of the waqf property,” the High Court noted in its judgment.
“The manner in which the KWB has acted is nothing more than land-grabbing tactics after almost 7 decades, affecting fundamental rights, and the livelihood of hundreds of helpless citizens, who have been left with no choice, but to come down on the roads to launch protests, stage dharnas and agitations, which is what compelled the State Government to take the drastic step of setting up an IC. The brazen manner in which the KWB has acted in the case at hand shows reckless disregard of not only the provisions of the Waqf Act, but also the fundamental rights of a large number of citizens whose livelihood is dependent as bona fide purchasers and occupants on land under dispute”, the Court added.
Source : Opindia
