The long wait for a resolution

The recent order of the Kerala High Court, declaring the disputed Munambam holding as not a Waqf property, has deepened the legal imbroglio rather than offering a lasting solution to the vexed issue.

The judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court, which found the actions of the Kerala Waqf Board regarding the Munambam land to be bad in law, stopped short of striking them down. The order has put the ball back in the court of the Waqf Tribunal, which is already seized of the matter.

Two sections of Kerala society, with the backing of various political and religious formations, are engaged in a pitched political and legal battle over the nearly 400-acre holding located along the coastal belt of Ernakulam district.

The Bench passed a landmark order, while striking down a single judge’s order, which cancelled the appointment of a former judge of the Kerala High Court as the Inquiry Commission into the Munambam issue. The Bench also termed the Kerala Waqf Board’s notification and registration of the Munambam land as Waqf as an act of land grabbing with an eye on the valuable real estate.

A setback

The observations of the court are a major setback for the Board, which is mandated by the Waqf Act to protect and manage Waqf properties. The Board is now left with no option but to challenge the decision. The Board can either go for a review of the decision before the Division Bench, which passed the order, or approach the Supreme Court with a Special Leave Petition. In either case, the agency will have to spend much of its energy and resources on challenging the order, which has raised serious questions about its functions.

In its elaborate order spread over 122 pages, the two-member Bench also gave little consideration to the judicial wisdom of the single judge, who cancelled the government order appointing the Inquiry Commission. The Bench could have taken a lenient view of the conclusions of the single judge in the case than terming it as “ex facie erroneous and having been passed in ignorance of Mussalman Waqf Act 1923 and the Waqf Acts of 1954 and 1995, as also the “pronouncements of the Supreme Court from time to time.”

What has come as a real surprise is the observation of the Division Bench regarding the possibility of even the High Court building or State Legislature Complex being declared as a Waqf property if the Board is allowed to continue with its “arbitrary declaration” of Waqf properties, as in the case of Munambam.

It may be recalled that some far-right organisations had earlier raised the spectre of some historical monuments being declared as Waqf property if the provisions of the Act were not struck down. The sarcastic comments of the Bench, presumably, have not gone down well with the stakeholders. The observations, which were given special emphasis in the court order, apparently lacked any legal backing or justifications and could leave wider socio-political ramifications.

Continuing fight

As the legal war over the Munambam holding assumes new proportions, the plight of the bona fide owners of parcels of land in the coastal village is far from over. They had been petitioning the authorities, right from the village offices to the top political offices in the country, seeking justice. They have also mustered the support of various socio-political organisations in their fight for their holdings.

However, the claims of the villagers are keenly contested by the Board and the organisations, which are determined to restore what they term as the alienated Waqf properties in the State. The organisations which have committed themselves to the restoration of Waqf properties say that around 30,000 acres of properties given in Waqf have either been encroached upon or changed hands, thus defeating the very purpose for which the properties were dedicated.

It may take a few more years and long-drawn legal battles, even to the highest court of the country, to find a judicial finality to the contentious issue. Endless litigation and delayed delivery of justice are what appears to be on the cards for the Munambam residents as well as the organisations fighting for the restoration of Waqf properties in the State.