Munambam Land Dispute: Kerala High Court Asks Collector Not To 'Overstep' Its Order For Accepting Tax By Allowing Mutations

The Kerala High Court on Thursday (December 18) directed the District Collector, Ernakulam to not 'overstep' its interim direction permitting acceptance of land tax paid by persons residing in the disputed Munambam land, which the State Wakf Board has claimed to be wakf property.

Justice C. Jayachandran was informed that the authorities had allowed mutation and also accepted Register of Rights (RoR), beyond what was permitted in Court's previous order.

Hearing the same, the Court orally remarked:

"They say there has been a violation of the interim order or rather, an overstepping of the interim order. The order only permitted payment of tax. Collector has gone into…No, let there not be further action based on it."

The Court was considering a batch of petitions, one of which was preferred by the Bhoo Samrakshana Samithy and other persons claiming to be landowners. It has now passed the following interim order:

"This Court prima facie finds merit in the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner in WPC 36063/2022. In these circumstances, there will be a direction to the District Collector not to issue any further orders for effecting mutation, for issuance of RoR, and the like except what has been permitted by the interim order, to receive tax...Further, it is directed that no further action by the revenue authorities based on the orders issued by the Collector shall be taken until further orders from this Court."

The Munambam land dispute involves a 404.76-acre stretch of land in Ernakulam that was originally owned by Farook College Managing Committee after it was transferred by one Mohammed Sidhique Sait through a deed back in 1950. Subsequently, the College had sold portions of this land to persons, some of whom had constructed homes and other buildings upon it.

In 2019, the Kerala Waqf Board classified the land covered by the 1950 deed as Waqf property, treating the deed as a Waqf deed rather than a gift. This move was opposed by families and individuals who had purchased the land from Farook College. Thereafter, the State Government had appointed a Judicial Commission headed by former High Court judge Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair to inquire into the dispute.

This was challenged in a writ petition and the Single Judge had quashed the notification constituting Commission of Inquiry. Recently, a Division Bench of the High Court held that the Munambam property is not a Waqf land.

The Division Bench had allowed the two writ appeals filed by the State government and held that the 1950 endowment deed executed by Mohammed Siddique Sait in favour of the Farooq College Managing Committee was not a waqf deed but a simple gift deed, never intended to create a permanent dedication of property in favour of God.

Challenging this, a Special Leave Petition has been preferred before the Supreme Court by the Kerala Waqf Samrakshana Vedhi. Last week, the Apex Court had stayed the declaration of the High Court that the Munambam property is not a Waqf land and ordered status quo with respect to the land till January 27.

Case No: WP(C) 4476/2023 and connected cases

Case Title: The Bhoo Samrakshana Samithy and Ors. v. District Collector and Ors. and connected cases

Counsel for the petitioners: T. Krishnanunni (Sr.), O.D. Sivadas, Vinaya V., T.U. Ziyad, P.Chandrasekhar, P. Martin Jose, Saji P. Joseph, C.C. Mathew, G. Mini (Palath), A. Seena, K.T. Saju, Deepesh E.S., Dayana Mathew, T.U. Sujith Kumar, Nisha George

Counsel for the respondents: Jamsheed Hafiz