On August 8, 2024, Bharat’s parliament sent the Waqf Amendment Bill to Joint Parliamentary Committee. But DMK and AIADMK keep opposing the Bill introduced by Centre. So, uncertainty of numerous property owners across the country lingers on (including 1,500-year-old Hindu temples!). They are affected by mysterious ownership claims by Wakf boards. The entire nation was shocked when Kiran Rijiju narrated in the parliament the predicament of Thiruchendurai. The entire village is claimed by the Waqf as its property. The details:
One Rajagopal of Mullikarupur, owning agricultural land in Thiruchendurai village, had agreed to sell 1 acre 2 cents of his land to one Rajarajeshwari. He had gone to the Joint III Sub-Registrar office in Trichy to arrange the purchase deed for ₹3.5 lakhs and get it registered. However, he was told by the sub-registrar that the land could not be registered as it belonged to the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board. This is as per an entry dated December 28, 1956, in the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board register which said that the entire village was “donated’ as Waqf by Anwaruddin Khan, who was nawab of Arcot from 1672 to 1749.
There are several such cases:
** Residents of Semmiyanallur in Avinashi started a hunger strike after Tamil Nadu Waqf Board issued notices to the Sub Registrar in Avinashi, claiming ownership of some residential plots in the village. The residents said the lands were converted to ryotwari land through [Tamil Nadu] Minor Inams (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 and remained unused for decades. In 1995, the lands were converted into residential plots and several people bought them. Around 50 families have built houses and the rest of the plots are yet to be used for construction. In August 2022 Tamil Nadu Waqf Board issued notice to the Sub Registrar in Avinashi, to stop registration. The residents claimed the ownership dispute could not be raised by the TN Wakf Board after the land was converted to Ryotwari. But, Sub registrar of Avinashi continued to avoid it. Aiming to draw the attention of revenue officials, they launched a hunger strike.
** In a shocking revelation in August 2023, it was found that the Waqf Board of Tamil Nadu claimed ownership of Anangakaundanputhur village, which is located in the Komarapalayam Panchayat of Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu’s Erode district. The land allocated to the Arunthathiyar community (Scheduled Caste) became a source of contention between the community and the Waqf Board. After 40 years, it was a shock to the community to witness the claim that the land where their houses are located belongs to the Waqf Board.
** The villagers in Tamil Nadu’s Arcot staged a protest on Tuesday saying the state’s Waqf board claimed ownership of 57 acres of land. “I went to the District Collector’s office to self-immolate but they stopped me. This land is the source of income for my family of 11. I have never heard of the deed getting cancelled in one night. They called me on December 19 with the documents for investigation and on 21, I was told by the Collector that the party had been changed, and my documents were faked”, said Ramesh. Meanwhile, the Muslim community in Athur held a meeting and passed a resolution not to allot land which is under controversy.
** A section of people in Kalampalayam near Karamadai has appealed to the district administration to give them access through a land, believed to be wafq board property, to reach a temple. According to sources, around five years ago, an Angalamman temple was built on a private plot next to Poramboke land which belongs to waqf board. Hindus say they should be given rights over the land stating it is used by people to reach the temple. Recently, waqf board members tried to fence the land, but people from other faiths opposed it.
** A slew of notices issued by the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board to sub-registrar offices across the State claiming ownership of vast tracts of land with request to authorities to refrain from registering transactions on these properties has landed several land owners in a legal thicket.
Several residents of Cheyvur panchayat village in Avinashi in Tiruppur district have alleged that land owned by them are now being claimed by the State waqf board.
** Fifty-six-year-old Ramesh is distraught. The land that his family owned for more than 40 years has now been transferred to the Waqf Board. It has been more than a month since his property was taken away from him and Ramesh has been running from pillar to post to get his land back, trying all the legal routes to fight his case. Ramesh’s father and uncle had purchased 3.76 acres of land in Veppur village in Ranipet district in 1980. After their death, the registration was transferred to 11 family members, including Ramesh, in 1998. Ramesh holds all documents related to the transfer of ownership of the lands since the 1950s. “On December 19, we were asked to submit all the original documents. Two days later, the collector’s office issued a press statement that the land belongs to the Waqf Board. I was shattered. Why wasn’t I informed about this directly? I went to the collector’s office to explain my stand. There was no intimation before transferring our property. Two days later, the police came with earth movers to clear out my land. When I confronted the officers, they asked me to move the court,” Ramesh said.
** A worried Palani has five daughters and needs his 3.5 acres to support his family. He breaks down recounting the ordeal that he had to go through when teams were sent to take over his land. Palani’s grief spreads to his nephew Jayaraj, standing by his side. “My grandfather bought the land from a person named Annamalai in 1983. I was six years old then. My family started cultivation five years later. On December 5 last year, we were told that this land doesn’t belong to us. We will never allow them to take away the land,” Jayaraj said. Land owners in Veppur claim that the district administration failed to hold talks with them on the issue. Those who lost their lands say they were asked to submit original documents of the land registered since the 1950s. Meanwhile, the Waqf Board argues that documentary evidence confirms its ownership of the land parcels in question. The authorities say villagers can take the legal route and challenge this before the court of law.
SCAMS
Abdul Rahman, Tamil Nadu Waqf Board chairman, told News18: “Of the 57 acres, some were disbursed to many individuals in the 60s and 70s. Apart from that, three-and-a-half acres were left, which belonged to the Waqf Board. Now, we found that the 3.5 acres belonged to some individuals. Government authorities have found that such mistakes happen in ‘patta’ registration. So they have cancelled it and renamed it with the Waqf institution. The government has taken all the legal measures and taluk officers were involved in finding out that this land belongs to the Waqf.”
“Nobody can claim that it belonged to some individual and that we have taken it. We have all the documents and proof. Anybody can come to the Waqf Board office and verify the matter. As per records, some portion of the land has been encroached upon for more than 60 years. Some people may be enjoying the encroached land. Now we have taken proper efforts to stop encroachments,” Rahman added.
2.The Tamil Nadu Waqf Board has strongly opposed the Centre’s reported plan to amend the 1995 law governing Waqf boards. The state Waqf Board chairman Abdul Rahman termed the move as ”conspiracy” and called it an attempt to destabilise Waqf properties. The Tamil Nadu Waqf Board alone manages around 1.8 lakh acres of land, and Mr Rahman emphasized that the proposed amendments would weaken the board’s ability to protect these properties.
WAQF CLAIM “UNCONSTITUTIONAL”
In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court has declared unconstitutional a 2010 amendment that brought waqf properties under the purview of the Tamil Nadu Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act of 1976.
As reported by The Hindu, they ruled that encroachers of waqf properties could only be evicted through waqf tribunals constituted under a 2013 amendment to the Central law.
The court concurred with arguments presented by a team of lawyers led by Senior Counsel V. Raghavachari and S.R. Raghunathan, who contended that the 2010 amendment exceeded the state’s jurisdiction and required Presidential assent due to its conflict with the Central law.
Rejecting the state government’s argument for co-existence of the state and Central laws, the bench mentioned that the Waqf Act of 1995 lacked sufficient provisions to address encroachments on waqf properties.
WARNINGS
The Sufi Islamic Board in Tamil Nadu has written a letter addressed to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Enforcement Directorate officials against Mr Abdul Rahman, the chairman of the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, alleging that there are “mysterious activities” underway at the Wakf Board under his chairmanship. The Board has alleged that Rahman has been misusing his post to solicit funds to purportedly fund a medical college.
“It is submitted that from the start of 2022, it was widely publicised that under the aegis of Mr Abdul Rahman, Chairman, of Tamilnadu Waqf Board, the construction of a medical college and Hospital at Veppur, Tiruchy was on the anvil. Further, Mr Abdul Rahman has been abusing/using his public statutory post to solicit donations for the proposed Medical College,” the complaint by the Islamic Sufi Board read.
The Islamic Sufi Board contended that Rahman has conducted many meetings across the state and solicited Rs 300 crores for the said college.
Tamil Nadu Waqf Board took over the administration of Nagore Dargah, after the Madras High Court relieved its administrators who abused their positions. The court took suo motu cognisance of the abuse of position by K Allaudin and SF Akbar, whom it had appointed to manage the affairs of dargah five years ago.
