Ahmedabad: TIMES NEWS NETWORK
19th Aug 2016
The controversy over alleged approval for sale or illegal transfer of 26 wakf properties by Gujarat State Wakf Board (GSWB) refuses to die down. On June 26, the state’s legal department, in a strongly worded letter to the GSWB, had demanded “punitive action“ against those officials of the board who “went beyond the purview of their jurisdiction“ and were responsible for “approving illegal transfer of 26 wakf properties“. The letter written by UM Bhatt, under-secretary in the legal department, has instructed that all such properties that were allowed to be transferred be taken back by the GSWB and deem such transfer or sale of property void. The 26 properties which were permitted by the GSWB to be sold or transferred in 2014-15 were in violation of the the Wakf (Amendment) Act-2013 passed by the central government on November 1, 2013.
The 2013 act completely prohibits the sale of wakf properties. wakf board members, giving the excuse that the applications for sale of properties, were dated before November 2013, had given approval under the old Act. “This was disapproved by the high court recently in the case of one of the 26 properties whose sale was allowed by the GSWB,“ said a senior official in the legal department.