Hyderabad: Can the government file a case against its own department? Sounds strange, but that’s exactly the matter involving the Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali wakf land in Manikonda.
The State government is a party in the controversy ridden Dargah land which the Telangana State Wakf Board is claiming as its own. The Supreme Court, where the case is pending, is expected to pronounce the final verdict on Tuesday.
The 1,654 acre land has become a bone of contention ever since the Telugu Desam government and later the Y S Rajashekhar Reddy regime allotted huge chunks of the dargah land in Manikonda to various companies at throwaway prices. The companies which received land under the TDP government are Wipro (30 acres), VJIL Consultants Ltd (5 acres), Polaris Software Ltd (7 acres), Infosys (50 acres), Microsoft (54 acres), Boulder Hills (17 acres), EMAAR (110 acres), MANUU (200 acres) and ISB (250 acres). Subsequently, the YSR government gave away 108 acres to the Lanco Hills Technology Park.
The first PIL in the case was filed by none other than the TRS then general secretary Habeeb Abdul Rehman Al Attas in 2007, stating that the entire landed property belongs to Dargah Hazrath Hussain Shah Wali. Since then, a number of parties have filed cases, including the Kiran Kumar Reddy government.
When the issue figured in the Assembly, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao assured Majlis floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi that the government would handover the unallotted vacant land at Manikonda to the Wakf Board. The Majlis leader wanted the companies which had raised the structure on the wakf land to become leaseholder of the Board.
According to Wakf Board officials, the Manikonda Jagir comprising 1,654 acres and 32 guntas of land was gifted to the dargah by the 7th Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, through a ‘firman’ in the 1920s as service Inam land. Over the years, a number of judgements have been delivered in favour of the Wakf Board, yet the dispute remains unresolved.
The Wakf Board is confident that the final verdict would go in its favour as it has all the documents to prove its claim. However, the State government’s reluctance to withdraw the case is a matter of worry. The Board has engaged the services of noted lawyer Fali S. Nariman to represent its case in the Supreme Court. The latter has reportedly demanded a hefty fee of over Rs 1 crore. The cash-strapped Board has to shell out this much money if it wants its case to be properly represented. A decision in the matter would be taken on Monday. (thanks TT)
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