The Karnataka High Court has stopped an attempt to grab yet another property by the state’s Waqf Board. The Karnataka High Court has ordered the Waqf Board to take the subject matter to the Waqf Tribunal. The Waqf Board reportedly wants to convert a property declared private by Waqf Board itself in 1976 back to Waqf.
Justice MGS Kamal of the Karnataka High Court has given this decision while hearing a petition filed by Jabir Ali. The High Court has said that the Waqf Board cannot change the decision given by the previous administrator by just forming a committee, and the matter will have to go to the tribunal. The court has said that the previous administrator and the current tribunal are equal institutions.
What is the matter
This case is related to a property located in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka. The property on which the Waqf wants to take possession belonged to a person named Shah Mohammad Raza Ali, and now his son Jabir Ali has filed a petition in this matter. This property was declared a Waqf property in 1965 by the then Mysore Waqf Board. This order was given by the then administrator of the Waqf.
A cemetery was also included in the properties to be declared Waqf. Even after being declared Waqf, these properties remained in the possession of Raza Ali and the Board had also sent him a notice in 1975 regarding this. After an investigation was conducted in this matter, in 1976, the State Waqf Board declared all these properties as personal properties of Raza Ali.
The orders to remove these properties from the list of Waqf Board were also given in 1977 itself. After this, till 2020, no one had any issue about this matter. However, in 2020, the Karnataka Waqf Board sent them a notice. It issued a notice in November 2020 and declared Raza Ali’s son Jabir Ali as an encroacher.
The Waqf Board alleged that Jabir Ali had got this property through fraud. After this, Jabir Ali went to the court. The court had asked Jabir to respond to the Waqf notice. The Waqf Board then formed a legal committee about this issue. This committee overturned the 1976 order and said that Jabir Ali’s property is now a Waqf property.
After this, Jabir Ali again went to the High Court. He argued that the Waqf Board is now raising the issue which was over in 1976, and that it is not right. Apart from this, he also said that as per the current law, the order of the administrator can be changed by the Waqf Tribunal or any other higher court.
Jabir Ali had termed the attempt to take possession of this property through the Waqf Committee as wrong. The High Court accepted his arguments and cancelled the order to make it a Waqf property again. The High Court has asked the Waqf Board to approach the Waqf Tribunal in this matter.
