Land a gift by Aurangzeb for Idgah: Waqf Board

A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy directed maintenance of status quo by all parties on about 90 acres of land at Guttala Begumpet, Ranga Reddy district. The order was passed in a batch of writ appeals filed by the Waqf Board of […]

A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy directed maintenance of status quo by all parties on about 90 acres of land at Guttala Begumpet, Ranga Reddy district. The order was passed in a batch of writ appeals filed by the Waqf Board of Telangana. The Waqf Board said the entire land was gifted by Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, for maintenance of Alamgiri Masjid Idgah and graveyard which was maintained by successors and caretakers. From 1958 till 1960, Mirza Khazib Saheb was recorded as Pattedar in the Sethwar. It is contended that the revenue records were tampered with and the name of the Pattedar was changed to D’Costa without any revenue proceedings. DV Sitharam Murthy, Senior Counsel appearing for the Waqf Board, pointed out that there was no justification for the single judge for setting aside the two notifications issued by the Waqf Board on February 8 and 22, 2018, declaring the land to be Waqf land after considering the objections of all parties. The panel directed the government to file their counters and maintain status quo till the date of next hearing.

NGO accounts frozen

Justice P Naveen Rao questioned the police why all of a sudden the bank accounts of Operation Mobilisation India, a Secunderabad-based Christian NGO was frozen. In 2016 the former Chief Financial Officer of the NGO filed a complaint against the principal trustee, Joseph D’Souza and others for mishandling Rs 100 crore charity money. The present petition was filed seeking directions to defreeze the accounts of the NGO. The petitioners stated that they had utilised the funds of the organisation for the benefit of the people during various disasters, including supply of free boats during the 2004 Chennai floods. They also sponsored free books to school students and bible to all age groups. As the police requested for time to respond, the judge adjourned the case to December 15.

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