HC directs centre, state to decide plea for one Muslim Wakf Board in UP

Lucknow The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday directed the central and state governments to consider and decide the representation of a petitioner for constituting one Muslim Wakf Board for the entire Utter Pradesh, in accordance with law after complying with the necessary provisions of Wakf Act,1995.

The order was passed by a division bench of justices Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal and Alok Mathur on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by one Masarrat Husain. The petitioner sought directions for the union and state governments to pass appropriate orders for setting aside the establishment of two separate Wakf Boards in the state and to constitute one Muslim Wakf Board for the entire UP in consonance with the provisions of Section 13 (2) of Wakf Act, 1995.

The petitioner’s counsel drew the court’s attention to the representation dated September 24, 2019 and contended that as per Section 13 (2) of Wakf Act, 1995, the state government was empowered to establish separate Wakf Boards for Shia and Sunni sects, only upon the satisfaction of either of two contingencies i.e. if either the number of Shia Wakf in the state was more than 15% of all the Wakf in the state or the income of the properties of the Shia Wakf in the state constituted more than 15% of the total income of properties of the Wakf in the state. He submitted that the said condition mentioned in section 13 (2) of Wakf Act had not been complied with by the state, therefore, the petitioner had moved the representation .