HYDERABAD: A bench of the Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice NV Shravan Kumar, on Wednesday, upheld a single judge’s order critical of the state government’s notification of a parcel of land as Waqf property in 2006, based on an inquiry report prepared 41 years ago by the Waqf commissioner.
In its orders, the bench pointed out that the exercise of statutory powers after a lapse of 41 years cannot be deemed a lawful exercise of those powers. The judgment came in response to a batch of appeals filed by the Telangana Waqf Board, challenging the single judge’s orders that had set aside the proceedings of the joint collector, Rangareddy district.
Private parties, contending possession of the land since 1950, argued that their ancestral rights were recognised under the AP Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act.
The challenge centred on the gazette notification issued by the government in 2006, declaring the lands as Waqf lands based on a report dated August 7, 1965, by the Waqf commissioner under Section 4(4) of the Waqf Act, which was repealed in 1995. In 2017, the single judge ruled that the lands were not Waqf lands and directed the RDO to consider issuing occupancy certificates to private parties.