Records of 2,100 properties missing, says Waqf board to Telangana high court

HYDERABAD: Has the Telangana State Waqf Board (TSWB) lost the records of 2,186 waqf properties which have been encroached? The waqf board itself made this startling admission before the high court, which sought a detailed affidavit on the goingson in the board by August 12.
The judges, who were seeking details of efforts made by the board to reclaim its properties, were shocked to learn about the state of affairs in the TSWB.The admission belies the waqf board’s earlier claims in the court that it has been putting all efforts to protect the 2,186 encroached waqf properties.
A bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was hearing a batch of PILs filed by former chairman of the state minorities commission Abid Rasool Khan and social activist Mohammed Ilyas, who were seeking retrieval of the waqf properties, particularly graveyards, from the clutches of the encroachers.
The board, however, has identified and reconstructed records pertaining to 85 properties and sent fresh eviction notices. Counsel Abu Akram, representing the waqf board, said: “We have issued fresh eviction notices in 85 cases involving 85 acres and cancelled 135 sale deeds registered on these 85 acres.” Appearing for the board, senior counsel DV Sitarama Murthy along with Akram furnished a report prepared by the CEO of the TSWB.
According to the waqf board CEO, after the bifurcation of the state in 2014 and formation of the TSWB, they found that the records pertaining to a lot of waqf properties had gone missing. “The records pertaining to the identified encroachments (2,186) and subsequent eviction notices could not be traced till now. Moreover, all the previous eviction notices have now become useless as there is no corresponding record with the board,” he said.
Also, certain provisions of Wakf Act were amended in 2013. “This amendment has rendered eviction notices issued under old Act redundant,” he said.
Shocked by the revelations made by the wakf board CEO, the judges verified with the board advocates on the status of formation of a special task force to reclaim the waqf properties. They replied they had requested the state police boss to constitute a task force. “A DSP rank officer was allotted for the purpose and he was attached to office of the waqf board CEO. We are issuing fresh eviction notices under the new Act in cases where record is available or could be reconstructed,” the lawyers said.
They further said, “In the melee that followed the bifurcation of the state, we lost all the records. We are in the process of reconstructing the records with the available material.”
Akram also narrated the details of litigation on the properties in district courts, waqf tribunal, high court and the Supreme Court. The effort in identifying the encroached properties and issuing eviction notices to 2,186 encroachers, too was not a recent effort. It dates back to a period prior to November 2013, the board said.