HYDERABAD: In a setback to the Telangana State Wakf Board, the Hyderabad High Court has set aside a notification issued by the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State Wakf Board listing more than 500 acres situated in Narsapur and Siddipet taluks of Medak district including lands of Solithro Private Limited Company in Shabashpally village of Shivampet mandal of the district as Wakf property under the Wakf Act,1954.
Justice M S Ramachandra Rao was allowing a petition by Solithro seeking to declare the action of the board as illegal.
The petitioner told that it had purchased 23.08 acres in an open auction conducted by the ING Vysya Bank Limited and State Bank of India on December 26, 2013 and August 13, 2014. It was brought to the notice of the court that the subject land is an Inam land and forms part of 584.28 acres and it had been in possession and cultivation of 111 persons since several decades through their ancestors. The RDO concerned issued the Occupancy Right Certificates to all the occupants of the lands. The petitioner company contended that the Wakf Act, 1995 came into force from January 1, 1996 and under Section 112 of the Wakf Act, 1995, the Wakf Act, 1954 and the Wakf (Amendment) Act, 1984 were both repealed and the notification issued under the repealed Act cannot be sustained in the eyes of law.
The judge rejected the contention of the Board that the survey report of the Survey Commissioner prepared in 1963 under the Wakf Act, 1954 is a completed action which is deemed to have been saved under sub Section (2) of Section 112 of the Wakf Act, 1995. The judge said it is not the case of the Wakf Board that the property in question became Wakf property on account of permanent dedication by any person professing Islam. The sole basis of the claim of the board that subject property is wakf property is that it was included in the survey report prepared in 1963 under the Wakf Act, 1954.