KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has quashed a case registered against two former postal department officers on a complaint by the Waqf Board that they illegally took possession of Waqf property on which a post office was located. The officials had not obtained its sanction, the board alleged.
The court said the department of posts was in possession of the property prior to the insertion of Section 52A in the Waqf Act. The post office was functioning from 1999 onwards. Section 52A was inserted in the Act in 2013. Hence, the prosecution against the petitioners was unsustainable, the court said.
The Section states that whoever alienates or purchases or takes possession of, either permanently or temporarily, any movable or immovable property being a Waqf property without prior sanction of the board shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.
‘Properties were in possession of post office before Act amendment’
Justice P V Kunhikrishnan issued the order on the petition filed by K Sukumaran and K Prema, who were Senior Superintendent and sub post master, respectively, of Kozhikode division in 2018, seeking to quash the case.
The Judicial First Class Magistrate issued summons to the petitioners based on the complaint alleging that the petitioners, who were the officials of the department of posts, had committed offences under Section 52A of the Act.
Advocate Suvin R Menon, representing the petitioners, argued that the properties were in possession of the post office even before Section 52A of the Waqf Act was inserted by way of amendment.
The post office was operating in a rented building in Marikkunnu since September 1999. In 2005, it was moved to a new building of the same owner. But after 2014, the owner stopped accepting rent and demanded that it be vacated as the land belonged to Waqf Board.