HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has set aside a 2001 Gazette notification declaring properties belonging to Ghousiya Sultana and 38 others in Toopran village of Medak district as waqf land, holding that the Waqf Board failed to establish that the mandatory procedure under Sections 4 and 5 of the Waqf Act, 1954, had been followed.
Justice Laxmi Narayana Alishetty noted that the Board failed to produce the survey report, survey commissioner’s proceedings, inquiry records, objections or other material showing compliance with the statutory procedure.
The Board had claimed that a survey was conducted in the 1960s and that public notice was given through tom-tom announcements. The petitioners, however, said their properties were private patta lands inherited from their ancestors and that they had not been given individual notices or an opportunity to raise objections.
The court held that the survey and inquiry under Section 4 formed the foundation for publication under Section 5 and could not be treated as an empty formality. Mere publication of a Gazette notification, without establishing compliance with the mandatory procedure, could not validate the inclusion of the properties as waqf land. The court accordingly set aside Gazette Notification No. 46-A dated December 20, 2001, insofar as it related to the petitioners’ properties.