Waqf administration: Issues and challenges faces

          

Author: MOKSHITH B URS , A STUDENT AT CHRIST UNIVERSITY 

ABSTRACT

Waqf Board is a statutory body in India which administers, manages all the Waqf properties and lands devoted for religious, charitable and other deeds. The following literary work will be dealing with the emergence, evolution and governance of the Waqf Board in India where in recent times is debated among the citizens about its encroachment ,corruptions ,mismanagement and issues faced. This study also shows corruption and mismanagement involved in the administration of the Waqf Board with its practice of rigorous encroachment of land and properties by it without valid proof or notice thereby causing chaos in the society. This paper concludes with exploring and suggesting possible solutions to the issues  faced and certain ways to reduce to stop it. 

Keywords: Waqf Board,Corruption, Waqf amendment Bill, 2024 

INTRODUCTION

 History and evolution of the Waqf Board in india.

The word “Waqf” derived from Arabic means the tradition of usage of properties and lands for donation, charitable, philanthropic and other religious purposes under the islamic law. In creating the Waqf, the assets or property is deemed to be forever dedicated towards god. The existence of the waqf is dated back to the Delhi sultanate and Mughal era where a king donated two villages for the jama masjid of multan with appointing a caretaker to it. The waqf properties further expanded and extended in India as the muslim rule in India gradually increased.This formation of the waqf board is historic, but now the management and its administration have been changed in the present day. Waqf Board, a statutory body in India although established during the Delhi sultanate and the mughal era came into further recognition through legislative acts and amendments.

Post-independence, the congress government which was in power in India during the time passed the Waqf Act, 1954 with the aim for the betterment, smooth functioning and administration of waqf properties in  India. The act was amended subsequently in 1959, 1964, 1984 and was revoked at a time and was further introduced through the Waqf act ,1995 which again, was recently amended in 2013. The Waqf Act had also given emergence to two subsidiary statutory bodies, the State Waqf Board (SWBS) established under Waqf act,1995 and the Central Waqf Council (CWS) which was set up in 1964. There are 32 Waqf Board in India across twenty eight states and union territories except that of Jammu and Kashmir, the State Waqf Board established in the respective state managed and administered all the Waqf properties in that particular state. These boards are further enhanced with the power  of holding, transferring and acquiring of the properties. The Central Waqf Council is a statutory body at the central level acts as an advisory body to the central government which also administers, advises and gives suggestions about the functioning of all the State Waqf Boards in the country. In India, the institution of Waqf during the Mughal rule was supervised and managed by mutawallis who were invariably respected scholars and high caliber jurists, well-versed in the jurisprudence of Waqf. According to the Waqf Act of 1954, the mutawalli is not the owner of Waqf property; rather, they are only its manager and custodian. The mutawallī shall use the remaining funds to fulfill “Maqāṣid-e-Waqf” (Waqf’s objectives) after paying the Waqf Board 7% of the Waqf Fund. 

Powers and Objectives of the Waqf Board

The main objective of the Waqf board is to be religious , philanthropic and pious, the properties donated and devoted under the waqf should be unconditional and should permanently dedicate these assets towards god without any consideration. The waqf board administer and manage all the waqf properties in India and supervise whether the assets and properties are used to the purpose they were meant for so that they are not misused.Further, it supervises and checks that all the waqf properties and registered with  the waqf board for its better operation. The founder of waqf  is  known to be waqif and has the direct right to donate such properties and give it away for such purposes as said under the muslim law.  The Waqf board plays an important role in the preservation of waqf properties from encroachment, misuse or any other illegal occupation. This preservation is mainly done as the Waqf properties are dedicated to Allah and it is very evident that it is protected from such atrocities due to this reason. Further, they aim at efficient management and development for the optimal and ethical utilization of the waqf properties in india. The utilization refers to the use of land and other assets for generating wealth by methods such as leasing them out so that it can  accumulate wealth for religious and other charitable purposes. Another prime objective  of the Waqf Board is the welfare of muslim community. It promotes the welfare of  the muslims by providing various facilities or services such  as building of mosques, funding for schools for the betterment of education, schemes such as orphanages and other welfare facilities corresponding to this. As a statutory body, it also plays the role of settling the clashes related to waqf assets or properties which is again, an important objective of the waqf board.

Issues arising out of Waqf Board 

In recent times, issues related and arising out of the waqf board in India are highly discussed and debated around the citizens, legal practitioners,law makers, politicians etc. There are numerous issues arising out of this which directly  affects the citizens of the country. The Waqf Board now is directly linked to corruption and is alleged of indiscriminate encroachment of public or private properties with no proper evidence, documents or notices to prove that the land originally belonged to them. Section 40 of the Waqf Act was widely misused to acquire and declare a property as waqf property. This arbitrary action done by the waqf board is a daylight robbery of public or private assets/properties.According to a report by the Justice Sachar Committee (2006), substantial assets belonging  to the waqf board comes under ambit of unauthorized occupation. Waqf board is considered as the third largest landowner in india. According to Surveys, the Waqf board owns around 9.4 lakh acres of land and 8.5 lakh immovable properties which is a very large amount and these numbers gradually increase over the time period. 58,889 waqf properties are currently encroached upon, and over 13,000 are being litigated, according to government data. There are still around 435,000 properties whose status is unknown. The Waqf Board without any satisfactory evidence or proof claims properties or lands belonging to people and sends them notification to evict the places as the reason given by the board is that the property belongs to them. Recently, in kerala , the waqf board claimed over 400 acres of land in Munambam, a suburb of kochi, as theirs which originally belonged to the natives living there. The same issue occurred in karnataka  when the state Waqf board issued eviction notice to the farmers claiming that their land  belonged to the Waqf. The Waqf even claimed that the land where Vidhana Soudha of karnataka and the land where the parliament is built belonged belonged to them. This type of unauthorized claiming of land and properties as per their discretion is a serious issue arising out of the Waqf Board. Further, the Waqf Board is also alleged of lack of transparency of its properties with mismanagement of properties such as illegal sales , transfer of the waqf properties. Therefore, these are the serious issues and corruptions alleged  that the waqf board is practicing in India.

Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024

The issues arising out of the Waqf Board related to unauthorized occupation, lack of transparency and mismanagement gave the main reasons for the BJP government to introduce this bill. This bill contained 44 amendments which led to huge controversy around the country. It is introduced with an aim to streamline the Waqf Board’s work and ensure the efficient management of Waqf properties. This bill basically amends the Waqf Act of 1995 and compensates for the issues and challenges aroused in managing the Waqf properties. This bill further aims to improve the regulation of waqf properties in india. Further, this bill also changes the name of the act and renames it as “Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development Act, 1995” to show its broad objectives and implications. The bill also removes the power of the Waqf board to declare any property as theirs which is a major  change in the bill and also allows for the survey of waqfs under the state revenue laws. Thus , this bill which was introduced in the parliament on 8th August, 2024 makes an attempt in curbing the indiscriminate powers of the Waqf Board by  proposing major changes in the Waqf Act, 1995.

Solution and Conclusion

As far as this issue is concerned, the main solution for this problem is to implement stringent laws, provisions and policies to completely curb down this issue. The government should impose some reasonable restrictions to the Waqf Board  to stop such indiscriminate acts of unauthorized possession of land which does not legally belong to them. This can be done by promoting transparency in the transactions and acquisitions of properties, judicial decisions, by implementing rigid laws for the consequences of these issues. Further, more anti corruption bodies must be introduced to deal with such kinds of issues and to curb them . Thus, to conclude, such possible solutions may be helpful in reducing corruption in the Waqf Board which would in turn increase public confidence and would not result in any such corruption as long as there is a strict legal framework to restrict and guide them.

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