On February 11, the Muslim community backed by the political parties in the state of Telangana staged protests against the Supreme Court’s decision pertaining to 1,654.32 acres of Manikonda Jagir land. The Supreme Court last week had ruled in the decades-old litigation regarding the Manikonda land in favour of the state government saying that ‘all the lands are held with the state government only’.
The Muslim activists supported by the BSP criticised the state government, which they say had promised to resolve the issue. Targeting the state govt, the demonstrators held banners that loosely read ‘Waqf is in danger due to the state govt’. The community has decided to hold a ‘dharna’ on February 25 to draw the state’s attention to the issue. According to the reports, they have also decided to form a committee of 10 members including the lawyers to make submissions over the issue.
One of the activists while talking to the Siasat Daily claimed that the TRS govt had promised to secure the land for Waqf board, and also had promised to give judicial powers to the waqf after coming to power. He criticized the Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for not keeping up with the electoral promises. Communist Party of India leader and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Aziz Pasha also hit out at the state government for running away from the promises it made earlier.
Meanwhile, Waqf Properties Protection Cell president M Nayeemullah Shareef opined that 75% of the lands were occupied by the ‘encroachers’. The state waqf board has filed a review petition in the SC regarding its decision on Manikonda Jagir land and said that the board had spent Rs 3.27 crore on legal counsels in the final quarter of 2021.
On February 8, settling the old land tussle between Dargah Hazrat Syed Hussain Shah Wali and the State government on the other side, the court observed that all the lands are held with the state government only. The dispute had started in 2006 when the Waqf had issued a notification annexing 1,654 acres of prime land in Manikonda Jagir village, an upmarket tech-city area in Hyderabad. The Supreme Court had ruled that the land belonged to the state and not the waqf board.
The court had further said that the govt had sold some of these lands through e-auction to different individuals, companies and also allotted to various institutions, including Lanco Hills, Jana Chaitanya Housing Pvt Ltd, TNGOS Housing Society, Hyderabad Public Services Cooperative Society, Phoenix, WIPRO, ISB School and Urdu University.
The Supreme Court also took into consideration the Jagir Abolition Act and returned the land to the state. The waqf had argued that the concerned land had been given to Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Vali as ‘inam’ by the then Nizam of erstwhile Hyderabad State. But the court said that as the Jagir Abolition Act nullified any jagirs or inams, the said ‘inam’ by Nizam is no longer valid, and the land belongs to the state. The Court directed the government to make cash payments to the jagirs and imams in terms of the commutation regulation, 90 per cent of the gross basic sum referred to in Section 4 of the Commutation Regulation.
It is pertinent to note that ‘Waqf’ means the permanent dedication by a person professing Islam of any movable or immovable property for any purpose recognized by the Muslim law as pious, religious or charitable. This means that any property by a user can be registered with the Board and it becomes ‘waqf’ and it remains so even if the original owner of the property dies.
Reports mention that the protest was led by ex-MP and president of All India Tanzeem Insaf, Syed Azeez Pasha, and the president of Deccan Waqf Protection Society, Osman al hajiri, secretary City CPI. The protest was also joined by the All India Sunni Ulema Board, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, Telugu Desam Party, Congress and several others including the women protesters.