Addressing the Lok Sabha as he tabled the Waqf (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju referred to the outgoing UPA government’s decision in March 2014 to denotify 123 prime properties in Delhi and give them to the Waqf board.
So what happened then?
The Urban Development Ministry at the time had prepared a draft Cabinet note to denotify the 123 properties, and to transfer ownership rights to the Delhi Waqf Board, “annulling” their acquisition by the British government in 1911-1915. A total of 61 of these properties were owned by the Land and Development Department while the remaining were owned by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
The transfer was eventually done in March 2014, a night before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect before the general elections.
Following the BJP’s victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and a petition by the VHP in the Delhi High Court, the NDA government initiated an inquiry into the transfer of the 123 properties, claiming this was done for “political considerations”.
In its petition, the VHP said: “The properties which have been acquired and vested in the government after the possession of the same has been taken… it cannot be denotified/ released from acquisition in exercise of power under Section 48 of the Land Acquisition Act.”
Most of these properties are located in and around Connaught Place, Mathura Road, Lodhi Road, Mansingh Road, Pandara Road, Ashoka Road, Janpath, Parliament House, Karol Bagh, Sadar Bazar, Daryaganj and Jangpura. While each property has a mosque, some have shops and residences.
Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said he had received a representation against Congress leader and then Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid. “On the eve of his demitting office last year, he was instrumental in the transfer of these properties, keeping vote bank politics in mind,” he told The Indian Express in 2015.
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Incidentally, in January 2013, then Attorney General G E Vahanvati had advised the government that the proposal for transfer of the properties was not legally feasible, after which the Minority Affairs Ministry set up a committee of experts under the Central Waqf Council. The expert committee backed the proposal, following which Vahanvati agreed.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
