By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: “Enter your world of unlimited luxuries,” reads Lanco Hills advertisement in yesterday’s newspapers in Hyderabad, announcing sell of luxury apartments in the outskirts of the city. The advertisement fails to mention that buyers will also become a party to the party to a waqf property litigation.
Litigation
Till two months back no one in the nation knew about Manikonda waqf property the litigation of 32,000 crore wakf property, which brought corporates backed by AP govt and the isolated AP State Wakf Board at loggerheads. But after the historic High Court judgment dismissing the civil revision plea filed by Lanco Infra Tech and the AP Government against Wakf Tribunal order of 2011 that declared the 1,630 acre of township land as the wakf property, first time the whole nation specifically Muslims felt that now it will be not an easy job for the governments and corporates to encroach wakf property, it gave a sense of spirit to Indian Muslims and especially all the wakf boards that encroached wakf lands could be retrieved.
Advertisement that appeared in several newspapers of Hyderabad makes no mention of the pending litigation.
In 2004, Congress Government of YSR Reddy allocated 1,630 acre prime wakf land in the suburb of Hyderabad to corporates at throw away price. Government allotted 400 acres to Emaar, 108 acres to Lanco Hills, 54 acres to Microsoft, 50 acres to Infosys, 30 acres to Wipro, 5 acres to VJIL and 7 acres to Polaris and others by the way of auction and nominations. Government at that time ignored the protest from the Wakf Board. By the time litigation was decided in 2011 in the Wakf Tribunal and finally in 2012 in the High Court all the corporates finished their constructions and started their business, except Lanco Hills’ whopping 1.4 billion housing project.
The High Court order barred any further constructions on the declared wakf land that is why Lanco Infra Tech owned by Congress’ Vijayawada MP Lagadpati Rajgopal felt biggest loser due to that judgment and immediately approached the apex court along with the AP Congress Government for a stay.
After the Supreme Court stay on the AP high court judgment on billion dollar wakf land case of Dargah Shah Wali, all the parties to the case started preparing for the legal battle in the apex court. Lanco Infra Tech, the developer of lanco hills hired top legal names of India, the Govt of A.P is taking the services of Attorney General of India G. Vahanvati,, and on the other hand A.P State Wakf Board, the step-child of the state government is still looking for a good counter to Lanco Infra Tech and AP govt.
But even as the legal battle rages on the Manikonda Wakf Property Case seems to be getting more Byzantine by each passing day, first blow to the Wakf Board came when Lanco Infra Tech backed by the AP Govt got the stay order from the Supreme Court and the next one was when Supreme Court allowed construction on the wakf property.
Property
But the biggest punch in the face was received by the Wakf Board yesterday, when Lanco Hills gave front page advertisements in all the major English dailies inviting people to own a luxury apartments constructed on that same wakf land.
If those apartments is going to be sold the litigation will involve more parties ranging in thousands, and the dream of AP Wakf board gaining control of that wakf land will become difficult.
Ghulam Afzal Biyabani, Chairman of the AP State Wakf Board was heralded and garlanded for months for winning the case in the High Court, now he seems to be worried. Speaking to TwoCircles.net regarding the advertisement, he said, “The honorable Supreme Court gave stay orders on the High Court judgment and allowed Lanco Hills to continue their construction activity, but they didn’t give permission to sell, Lanco Infra Tech has interpreted the judgment incorrectly.”
Chairman Biyabani, who is also a member of AP congress said, “The next hearing of the case is in the second week of August, we will raise this issue in front of the Supreme Court, the matter is sub judice Wakf Board will not take any step which will hamper our efforts to retain that prime property and will make the whole matter more complicated.”
On the other hand Lanco Hills is assuming that it is their inherited right to sell what they had constructed. TCN contacted Lanco Hills’ Sales & Marketing Manager (Residential) Amit Abde, he said, “There is no scope of losing the case in the Supreme Court, as SC had already stated in its stay order that Lanco Hills is a victim of a system. We are even registering the flats with the government in the name of the buyers.”
Mr Abde said 1,900 sq ft flat will cost 75-80 lakh and 4,500 sq ft flat will be around 1.8 crore. When asked what if Lanco Hills loses the case in SC, he said, “Even if we lose the case we will provide alternate land or monetary compensation to the Wakf Board as AP Govt had already given the same assurance to the Supreme Court.”
Paradox
Here lies the paradox- AP Govt. while taking the stay and permission for resuming the construction work assured to the Supreme Court that in the chance of losing the case Lanco Hills will compensate the Wakf Board with alternate land or will provide monetary compensation. But on the other hand AP State Wakf Board has refused any such consultations, the Board in June first week sought fatwa from the religious scholars in Hyderabad on the possible compensation for the wakf land, all the ulemas unanimously declared that according to the Islamic law a land which is being made wakf will always remain a wakf land, there could be no alternative for it, and also monetary compensation cannot be taken as wakf land cannot be sold.
After the fatwa, wakf board declared in its general body meeting that there will be no compromise on the land, not just because it is against the Islamic wakf rules and the Wakf Act, but also because it will lay down a wrong precedent and will hamper the litigations of prime wakf properties pending not only in AP but in the whole country.
Advocate Shafeeq ur Rehman Muhajir who fought this case in AP high court shared the same view that selling of flats in the Lanco Hills will make the whole case more complicated, he said to TCN, “First of all this matter became complex when Supreme Court gave the stay order, apex court shouldn’t have given that order, in the first place it was not a subjective order, but the order based on the billions of dollars invested by the companies in that wakf land. Now by selling those apartments Lanco Hills is trying to make this litigation more complicated.” He also added “The persons who are going to buy those residential flats will be fools, as they are going to step in to the shoes of the sellers and will become a part of the litigation, they will have to obey the judgment, and it will be a subjective matter.”
On the proposal of Lanco Infra Tech that they will provide alternate land or will give monetary compensation if they lose in the supreme court, Mr. Muhajir replied, “They came up with the same proposal in the High Court, but it is impossible not only for the company but even for the government to provide that kind of prime land with such infrastructure facilities in the same position. You cannot find such vast land with all such characteristics neither in Hyderabad nor in whole Rangareddy district. On the proposal of monetary compensation, govt allotted that major land at throw away prices that too in 2004, now same kind of money cannot be given to the wakf board as compensation.”
For now winning this case is important to Lanco Infra Tech to save its 1.4 Billion dollar baby; for AP govt, it is matter of principal to save the corporate interest to keep its image of preferred IT destination intact, and for the AP State Wakf Board it is an all-out war of prestige and to gain back the lost hope that encroached wakf lands could be regained. But as the events unfold, it seems it is going to be difficult or perhaps impossible for the Wakf Board to gain back its lost property, but only if Supreme Court thinks otherwise.
Link:
http://apwakfboard.ap.nic.in