NEW DELHI: Challenging the recent notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Delhi Waqf Board moved to the Delhi High Court, said Amantullah Khan, Chairperson of the Board. In a notice to DWB, the MoHUA absolved the board in all matters pertaining to 123 properties listed as ‘Waqf properties’. These properties majorly include mosques, dargahs and cemeteries.
Stating the report of the ‘two-member committee’ comprising Justice S P Garg, former judge of Delhi High Court and Radha Charam, SDM (retd.), the land and development office of MoHUA said that the board has not filled any representation or objection before them pertaining to these properties.
The notice added that an opportunity was also given to the board after their application dated December 2, but they submitted no objections or submission. However, in response, the board scrapped the argument saying that the committee did not share any report with them, despite the admitted position that board is the “main stakeholder”.
Khan further questioned the constitutionality of the committee’s formation as the matter is still pending in court. “On 12th April 2022, we wrote a letter to the two-member committee stating that we are challenging the formation of the committee as we are the main stakeholder of these properties,” Khan added.
In the 1980s, an official said that the then-UPA government gave these properties on the lease of one rupee, which was challenged in court by the Indraprastha- Vishwa Hindu parishad. “The court formed the one-member committee to look into it, however, the report was not shared in the public domain or with the board as it was in favour of the waqf and another “two-member” committee was formed,” he added.
Khan said, “Most of these properties are mosques and cemeteries, what will the government do with them after acquiring them?” Welcoming this decision, Alok Kumar, Central working president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad said, “After a long legal battle, we have saved 123 such properties worth `20,000 crores from going to the illegal occupation of the board.”
Connivance between AAP, RSS
Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Naqvi, the chief patron of Anjuman -e Haidri, said that the case to snatch away these properties appears to be more of connivance than negligence for the following reasons. “This action served a two-fold purpose of usurping waqf properties and gaining political mileage as well as trying to garner the sympathy of the Muslim community,” he added.