In a major setback to the state government, the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and Lanco Hills Ltd, the AP High Court on Tuesday dismissed their plea that the 1,600 acres at Manikonda were jagir lands. The judgement has given a boost to the State Wakf Board, which had claimed that the land was Wakf property.
The state government, APICC and Lanco Hills had challenged a 2006 Wakf Board notification declaring the land in Manikonda village as belonging to Dargah Hussain Shah Vali and its Wakf property.
The court dismissed the civil revision petitions filed by them against an order of the AP Wakf Tribunal in 2011 by directing the government, the APIIC and other allottees not to alienate, alter, or sell the lands. With the judgement, Lanco and others will now have to stop their activities, including constructions and sales, by virtue of the injunction of the Wakf Tribunal.
A division Bench comprising Justices V.V.S. Rao and R. Kantha Rao held that the AP High Court could not entertain the writ petitions of the state government and others in view of the powers vested under the Wakf Act either to alter or to cease registration of Wakf properties.