Munambam agitation in Kerala, which made national headlines amid Waqf debate, called off after 414 days

Munambam Bhoo Samrakshana Samithi chairperson Joseph Benny said that after the High Court order, around 250 families paid their land tax. The committee’s decision to withdraw the agitation has the support of the Catholic Church, which had been actively involved in the agitation. “Now, we are collecting the details of families that do not have mutation certificates for their land. Once they also get the revenue rights, the issue will be solved,” he said.

Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev and Revenue Minister K Rajan were present at the venue where the samithi declared the decision to call off the agitation.

However, a pro-BJP Christian group, Christian Association and Alliance for Social Action (CASA), alleged on its Facebook page that the winding up of the Munambam agitation was a drama enacted by the CPI(M), Congress, Muslim League, as well as certain priests, with an eye on the upcoming local body elections. “The people of Munambam, who walked out of the existing agitation, have started the protest again,” it said.

The Munambam agitation had made national headlines against the backdrop of Parliament passing the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in April this year. In a bid to attract the Christian community in Kerala, the BJP had highlighted the amendment as a move to deliver justice to the people of Munambam. After the Bill was passed, 50 Christian families had joined the BJP, which had used the issue as part of its Christian outreach in Kerala.

Last month, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court had said the disputed land could be classified as Waqf property. The court was hearing an appeal by the state government, which challenged a single-Bench order that cancelled the state government’s decision appointing an inquiry commission to find a resolution to the dispute, including restoration of revenue rights of the residents.

Referring to the Waqf Deed of 1950, which led to the Waqf board staking claim on the land, the Division Bench last month said it was never intended to create any “permanent dedication in favour of the Almighty God”, but was simply a gift deed in favour of Farook College Management in Kozhikode — it was the college management which sold the land to the present occupants. Merely because the deed of 1950 was named a Waqf endowment, it cannot give it the Waqf character, the court said.

In the wake of that High Court directive, the Munambam Bhoo Samrakshana Samithi moved a fresh appeal in the High Court, seeking a direction to the Revenue Department to accept land tax from residents along with other relief for effecting mutation, transfer of properties, issuance of encumbrance certificate, and so on. The court then provisionally allowed the collection of land tax from the residents, pending the result of a challenge of its earlier directive that will be considered by the Supreme Court on December 17.