Delhi Waqf Board moves high court, says ministry’s letter on 123 properties ‘spread fear and resentment amongst Muslim Community’

The board has moved the stay application in an already pending plea filed in 2022. The petition claimed that the said 123 properties are religious in nature and the board is a stakeholder in the matter, and hence sought a copy of the 2017 report of one-person committee appointed by the Centre, quashing of the decisions taken by the Centre based on that report, and thereafter taking of a new decision after affording it a reasonable opportunity of hearing.

Subsequently, the board moved another application in the plea seeking a stay on the proceedings of the two-member committee appointed by the Centre in February 2021. However, the high court asked the board to amend its plea instead of moving an application, pursuant to which the board moved an amendment application. The high court issued notice to the Centre on this amendment application and the matter is now fixed in August.

The present stay application claims that while the plea was pending, the board on February 13 received a letter from the Land & Development Office, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs which said that the two-member committee. consisting of Justice (Retd.) Sat Pal. Garg and Shri Radha Charan SDM (Retd.), had submitted its report, though the date of submission of the said report was not mentioned in the said letter.

The letter, dated February 8, reads that the board was the main stakeholder party to whom the opportunity was given by the committee, however, it did not appear or file any representation with respect to the 123 properties. The letter states that another opportunity was also granted to the board after it moved an application on December 2, 2021. However, again no objections or submissions were made by it to the committee.

“It is evident from the above facts that Delhi Waqf Board does not have any stake in the listed properties, neither have they shown any interest in the properties nor filed any objections/ claims. It is therefore, decided to absolve Delhi Waqf Board from all matters pertaining to 123 Waqf Properties,” the letter reads.

The stay application states that the board on April 12, 2022, served a copy of the present plea before the high court to the two-member committee requesting them to defer the proceedings until the final adjudication of this plea. The application claims that the board again wrote to the committee on May 13, 2022 ,with the same request.

The application further states that there was no reason for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to appoint a two-member committee to conduct the same exercise de-novo. The board claims that neither the “one Member Committee nor the subsequently appointed two Members Committee had any Statutory basis”, as they were nothing but arms of the ministry, which is already represented before the high court.

The application states that Waqf Boards are Statutory Authorities constituted under the Waqf Act and the properties are Waqf properties by their very nature and as per the act the “the general superintendence, management and control” rests with the board.

The application also claims that the ministry’ letter which has been affixed outside each of the 123 waqf properties, has “spread grave anxiety, fear and resentment amongst the Muslim community” and “people with vested interest” have used the letter to “besmirch” the Delhi Waqf Board, “particularly its chairman”.

“They have taken to social media viz., Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, news-portals etc. to create an atmosphere against the Delhi Waqf Board and its Chairman,” the application states.

When the main plea was listed in 2022, the Centre told the court that the one-member committee’s report was rejected because it was inconclusive and opposed the request for sharing it with Waqf Board.