High Court directs TS govt to sack Wakf Board CEO

Hyderabad : The High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy heard three Public Interest Litigations on rampant Encroachment of Wakf properties spread across the State.

The bench came down heavily on Chief Executive Officer, Telangana Wakf Board Md Khasim for not protecting the huge stretches of Wakf properties spread across the State from the land grabbers.

Further, the court directed the Chief Secretary to get rid of the CEO as he has failed in protecting the Wakf properties, ostensibly on the ground that he was unaware of the basic knowledge of Criminal Procedure Code, under which he could have approached a Jurisdictional Magistrate and file a private complaint against the encroachers of Wakf Properties.

The contentions of CEO Md Khasim that the concerned SHOs were refusing to file FIR's stating that these were civil matters, were termed as vague.

"This court is of the opinion that the Telangana government will take serious action against the CEO, because, Prima Facie this court feels that the CEO has failed to perform his legitimate duty in protecting Wakf properties and the State is bound to protect Wakf properties," observed the CJ.

"The court is surprised that an officer is saying that he never read the CrPC in his life. He never even bothered to consult his counsel. Then who needs such an inefficient person? Tell the State government to relieve him first and put a competent person in his place. At least the Wakf properties can be protected in the State," the court opined.

Chief Justice further stated that the Telangana government had no dearth of officers, who could protect the Wakf properties. The present CEO had only issued notices to the encroachers and preferred to stay mute for years together. Out of 85 encroachment cases of Wakf properties, only five FIRs were registered.

"Going by these statistics, the court feels that the CEO is hand in glove with the land grabbers," the CJ added, directing the Principal Secretary, Minorities department to initiate an inquiry into the entire issue and file a report within three weeks and if the Principal Secretary Minorities department does not file a report, he shall appear before the Court within three weeks. For further hearing, the matter has been adjourned to December 17.