Hyderabad: Officials of the Telangana State Wakf Board have been remiss in not pursuing scores of petitions seeking compensation from government agencies and pleas against orders granted by the lower courts in favour of private parties.
As a result, these cases have not even been listed for hearing before the Hyderabad High Court for the past decade.
Though the board managed to get interim orders like stays or status quo in some of the cases filed by it, many others have been left in the lurch and are pending final disposal.
The board has moved just 24 cases from 2010 till December 2016 against private parties and government agencies to regain its land or to get compensation for land acquired for public purpose by government agencies.
During the 10-year period, private parties and government agencies, have slapped hundreds of cases against the erstwhile AP State Wakf Board with regard to properties in the present Telangana State.
The Telangana State Wakf Board, which was notified in September 2015 by the Centre, still has 193 pending cases involving encroachment of hundreds of acres of wakf property, disputes over appointments and removal of mutawallis (caretakers), misappropriation of funds of wakf institutions, besides service matters concerning the Board’s employees.
As many as 32 civil revision petitions, 159 writ petitions and a criminal petition are pending before the High Court from 2010. Since 2000, eight appeals have been filed before the High Court, six of them by the board and two by private parties. They pertain to disputes on title of the land between the board and individuals from Telangana. The board has lost four casesand two are pending. Private parties won two appeals against the board.
