THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There are 53,290 immovable waqf properties in Kerala as on November 13, 2024. Of this, 1,008 face litigation, reveals data accessed by TNIE from the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. Of the total, 10,841 properties are agricultural land.
On expected lines, Malappuram district tops the list with 21,537 properties. Idukki with 227 properties comes last. Besides agricultural land, there are 936 buildings, 90 houses, 28,256 plots, three fishing ponds, 788 shops and 173 schools registered as waqf properties. “As many as 12,000 institutions are registered as waqf in the state till date,” Waqf Board CEO V S Zakir Hussain told TNIE. “Registration (of new properties) takes place every day. These new properties include schools, agricultural land, shopping complexes,” he added.
BJP state prabhari Prakash Javadekar had recently challenged the LDF government in Kerala to reveal the details of waqf properties in the state. His remarks, made in the backdrop of the Munambam controversy, had kicked up a debate on the number and extent of properties managed by the Waqf Board.
Only two properties are directly managed by the Waqf Board. As many as 39,708 are managed by management committees, while 11,752 are managed by Mutavallis. Administrators manage 478 properties. In 1,350 cases, no system is in place to manage the properties.
“Strictly speaking, the Kerala State Waqf Board owns no properties,” Waqf Board chairman M K Sakeer said. “The waqf properties are managed and registered in each district and we have 14 divisional offices. The board intervenes only when the properties are not protected under the Waqf Act,” he said.
Zakir Hussain said the campaign that the board evicts people on the basis of claims are not right. “Once the board is convinced that there is merit in the petition of the divisional office, we start the process and send notices to the parties concerned.
We hold a hearing and verify the documents. If we feel that there is alienation or encroachment, we forward it to the three-member tribunal headed by a sessions judge in Kozhikode. After the verdict of the tribunal, the parties can approach the HC for review. This process has been going on since 2022. The reports that the board has been serving notices in haste is not correct,” he said.
Going by the official data, there are 1,008 litigations in waqf properties. Of this, 457 are external (with members of other communities) and 551 are internal (with members of the Muslim community) litigations.