HYDERABAD: With over 75% of its properties encroached upon over the decades, the Telangana Waqf Board is fighting over 3,500 cases to claim about 50,000 acres of land.
The land involved in the legal wrangles ranges from a few square yards to even hundreds of acres in one land parcel in almost all the districts, especially in Ranga Reddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Mahbubnagar, Sangareddy, and Nizamabad.
The worth of the land involved in the acres the Board is trying to reclaim could be thousands of crores.
For instance, the Board has been claiming nearly 1,200 acres in Aloor village in Chevella mandal, 90 acres in Guttala Begumpet near Madhapur, 108 acres in Manikonda, 350 acres in Malkajgiri mandal, and another 350 acres in Rajendranagar near Agriculture University, 530 acres in Medak district, and 560 acres in Maheshwaram mandal.
The Board is also fighting with the forest department over the ownership of another 1,700 acres. Of the 4,000 acres near Pahadisharief, nearly 2,000 acres of Waqf land was allotted to the Shamshabad airport by the govt, and the Board is now left with only two-digit land after encroachments, the Board officials claim.
The Board members say the litigations on Waqf were mainly for two reasons. Apart from the Waqf Board’s failure to protect its land over the decades, the revenue department did not mutate the land being claimed by the Waqf in the revenue records, and finally, the land went into the hands of land grabbers in some districts.
The other reason is the inordinate delay in issuing gazette notifications by the govt on Waqf lands, even after surveys were done and verified by the govt. Most of the gazette notifications pertaining to the Waqf properties began in the early 1990s and were issued and published until 2000.
Dismissing the claims that the Waqf Board has been issuing notifications claiming the ownership of the land recently, especially after the year 2020 in areas such as Boduppal, Ghatkesar, Medipally, Malkajgiri, and other areas, the Board officials claim that the basis for claiming the land was a survey done in 1961 itself. Gazette notifications got delayed due to technical reasons.
The Waqf Board has been writing letters to the district collectors to mutate its lands left over and also stop registering the Waqf lands to others since 2015, but they were ignored by some authorities.
For instance, 350 acres in Malkajgiri and another 350 acres in Rajendranagar near Agriculture University belong to Mir Momin Sahab Ki Pahadi, and the claim was proved 60 years ago. Similarly, for about 1,200 acres of land being claimed by Waqf in Aloor village, there are Muntakhabs (a certificate of grant) by Nizam, a Waqf Board member said.
Explaining the reasons, sources in the Waqf Board said, as per the Act, the district collectors were supposed to implement the revenue records within six months after the survey report was sent by the govt.
The collectors can raise any objection or doubts over the ownership within the six months for verification, but the revenue department completely ignored this. Giving an example of the extent of damage for not recording the Waqf land in revenue records, an officer said of the nearly 1,950 acres in Manikonda, the united AP govt handed over the land to APIIC, which auctioned the Manikonda land to several infra companies and multinational companies.
“The Waqf lands were identified six decades ago. The united AP govt appointed a survey commissioner in 1961 to survey the Waqf lands with statutory powers. The survey details were vetted and ratified by the then state govts. Even in 1995, the amendment said the properties which were already declared as Waqf prior to 1995 were deemed to be Waqf, and no further enquiry, ratification, and reconsideration is required, and the same was reiterated in 2013 also,” a senior official of the Telangana Waqf Board said.
Concerns over the amendment by the centre
If the new Waqf Act amendment 2024 is passed in the upcoming Parliament session, officials said the situation may arise where the Waqf Board has to submit evidence to prove the ownership of the land to the respective district collectors to claim the land, and the collector should be satisfied with the evidence. The minority leaders worry about the clause Waqf by User, where some of the properties such as Masjid, Ashurkhanas, Kabristan (Muslim graveyard), and Dargahs do not have any documents.
The Waqf officials have submitted their concerns and objections to the new proposed amendment to the Waqf Board to the parliament committee. But the Telangana Waqf Board officials claim, though many amendments were made to the Waqf Act, especially in 1995 and in 2013 by the Parliament, the Centre said, “Once a property is declared as Waqf, it shall remain Waqf, and it cannot be altered even the properties declared as Waqf prior to the Waqf Act 1954,” sources in the Waqf Board said.
The Waqf lands were allotted by the Nizam, and there are documents to prove that which cannot be questioned now. In a similar way, endowment lands cannot be questioned. While the survey commissioner was appointed by the govt, endowment land can be surveyed by an assistant commissioner cadre officer with the orders of the commissioner.
A former Waqf Board CEO said the Board only gets 7% of the revenue that is generated through the rentals or lease amount on the properties, and the rest goes to Muthavalis and institutions’ management committees.
Protection of Waqf land
Telangana Waqf Board Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Asadullah, while admitting the huge extent of Waqf land is under encroachments and the Board is trying to reclaim it, told TOI that Waqf land protection measures are being taken. The lands that are under the possession of the Board will be made geo-fencing and geo-tagging. There is a plan to procure satellite images of the Waqf properties and demarcate the boundaries as per the digital land survey. The court will decide the litigation, and wherever required, the Board will also file revision petitions and will not give up its right, the CEO said.
