Kerala Court Denounces Waqf Board's Land Claim as 'Illegal Tactic'

The Kerala High Court has declared that the Kerala Waqf Board's attempt to classify Munambam land as waqf property is an 'illegal land grabbing tactic'. This assertion by the court upholds a prior government order sanctioning an inquiry commission to thoroughly investigate rightful ownership of the contentious land area.

Judges Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Syam Kumar V M emphasized that the land in question was wrongly marked as waqf property, a classification unaligned with necessary procedures mandated by the Waqf Act of 1954 and 1995. The court highlighted that such actions deprived numerous families of their livelihoods, who had bought the land decades earlier.

The court critiqued the Kerala Waqf Board for its severe delay in declaring the land as waqf, suspecting such a delay to be unreasonable and a violation of the Waqf Act. By criticizing the arbitrary nature of the declaration, the court underscored the necessity of upholding justice and preventing misuse of power in a secular nation like India.

(With inputs from agencies.)