KOZHIKODE/KOCHI: The Waqf Tribunal that is hearing a petition filed by the Farook College management committee on the Munambam land issue discussed a vital question as to whether there is any bar on selling a property not registered under the Waqf Board. The tribunal chaired by Judge Rajan Thattil posed the question while hearing the committee’s petition challenging the Waqf Board’s act of including the land in Munambam in the Waqf registry.
In a related development, the Kerala High Court on Friday restrained the Waqf Tribunal from passing final orders in the proceedings connected to the Munambam land dispute cases until May 26. A division bench comprising Justice Amit Rawal and Justice K V Jayakumar passed the interim order on a petition filed by the Waqf Board challenging the tribunal’s order rejecting its plea to call for records regarding the cases from the Subordinate Judges Court in Paravoor, Ernakulam.
The board had sought the records on the ground that they have a direct bearing on the proceedings pending before the tribunal. The HC, however, said the tribunal could go ahead with the proceedings. The court issued a notice to the respondents, including the Farook College managing committee, and posted the petition for May 26.
In Munambam, Muhammad Siddique Sait handed over 404 acres of land to the college management in 1950. But the Waqf Board included the land in the registry only in 2019 following the findings of Nizar commission appointed by LDF government in 2007.
Munambam a waqf property, says document
Prior to that, the land was not registered under the Waqf Board. The Farook College management had sold land before 2019 and the Tribunal wanted to know whether the transactions would amount to violations or not. The college committee’s claim is that it is entitled to sell that as it is a gift and not a Waqf property.
In the meantime, a decades-old document has come to light which stated that the land in Munambam was waqf property. The Waqf Board presented the affidavit, filed by a person who managed the property on behalf of Farook College, before the Tribunal. The affidavit was filed by a person named Kalanthan in the case before the Paravoor sub-court in 1970.
The case was against 14 persons living in Munambam, and the affidavit said all the claims of the persons submitted before the court were false. The affidavit asserted that the land was given to the college management committee as waqf and has been used as waqf property.
The tribunal began fresh hearing in the case on April 8 and is holding sessions on a daily basis. It is discussing all the issues concerning the case in a detailed manner.