KOCHI: The High Court on Wednesday granted the state government four weeks to fill the vacancies in the Kerala State Waqf Board, recording the advocate general’s submission that steps had already been initiated in line with the amended Waqf Act, which mandates the inclusion of two non-Muslim members on the board.
It is for the state government to take action in accordance with law, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syakumar VM, said.
“At this stage, we are only seized with the problem of proper functioning of the Waqf Board, where admittedly there are three vacancies. Since the state has initiated the process and has taken a stand that the state is going to take steps for filling up the vacancies, we adjourned this matter for a period of four weeks in order to enable the state to take appropriate steps for filling up the vacancies,” it said.
The state government informed the court that the Supreme Court is considering a similar issue concerning the constitution of the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board. It submitted that it was ready to reconstitute the Waqf Board at the earliest.
The court issued the order on a batch of petitions challenging the constitution of the State Waqf Board without non-Muslim members.
The government submitted that several other petitions, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League and the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, challenging the inclusion of non-Muslims on the board, are pending before the court.
Counsel for the petitioners argued that the state government constituted the board without complying with Section 14 of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act.
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They contended that the notification did not provide for the mandated representation of two non-Muslims, one member each from the Shia and Other Backward Classes among Muslims, and one each from the Bohra and Agakhani communities.
In the absence of such representation, they argued, the Board could not function. The court directed the state government to take expeditious steps to fill the remaining vacancies.
The petitioners argued that the state had violated the third proviso to Section 14(1) of the Act by failing to include one member each from the Shia, Sunni and Backward Class Muslim communities.
They also contended that the exclusion of members of the Bohra and Agakhani communities was illegal. The state, however, submitted that such representation could be provided only after determining the number of members belonging to the Shia, Sunni, Agakhani, Bohra and other Backward Class communities, as required under the Act.
The state informed the court that the nomination of the additional secretary to the law department had been withdrawn and that the joint secretary handling Waqf matters had been nominated in his place.