Waqf properties: UP govt revokes 1989 order, directs to check revenue records of uncultivable land

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has revoked with immediate effect a 1989 Revenue Department order under which uncultivable land at several places was ”illegally registered” as Waqf property, according to an official.

In an order issued on September 7, the government directed all divisional commissioners and district magistrates to examine all proceedings taken under the 1989 order to correct revenue records accordingly while seeking a report within a month. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Minority Welfare and Waqf Danish Azad Ansari termed the exercise a ”normal departmental process”, saying it has nothing to do with other Waqf properties.

The 1989 order was issued when the Congress was in power in UP with Narayan Datt Tiwari as its chief minister.

Department Deputy Secretary Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui said it has come to the notice of the government that under a mandate issued by the Revenue Department on April 7, 1989, common uncultivable land has been ”irregularly registered” in revenue records as Waqf property. Siddiqui said there were pieces of barren land that were registered as Waqf property by manipulating provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Muslim Waqf Act, 1960. In the order issued by the government, it has been said there is no provision in the Act for the registration of properties without following due process.

Siddiqui said according to the Act, only those properties come under the category of Waqf which are donated for religious and welfare work according to Muslim law and customs. Meanwhile, minister Ansari told PTI that the order is a ”normal departmental procedure” and it is only related to complaints of properties wrongly registered. It has nothing to do with the rest of the Waqf properties in the state, he said. The minister said in some media reports it is being told that the exercise is like the ongoing survey of private madrassas, which is incorrect.

The Uttar Pradesh government is conducting a survey to assess facilities available in all private madrasas of the state.