Kochi, March 17 (IANS) The Pinarayi Vijayan government on Monday suffered a jolt when the Kerala High Court allowed the petition challenging the appointment of an Inquiry Commission to find a permanent solution to a dispute between the Munambam residents and Waqf Board.

The single bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas said the order of appointment has to be set aside as the matter was still pending before the Waqf Tribunal.

“However, as the issue is in consideration before the Waqf Tribunal, even if the dispute creates any issues of public order, still recourse to the Provisions of the Commission of Inquiry Act could not have been resorted to at this stage. As the relevant facts which ought to have been borne in mind while appointing a commission of inquiry were not concerned by the government, Exhibit P1 order appointing the commission of inquiry was issued without any application of mind and fails the test of law,” the Court said.

The Court also observed that the government appointed the commission without considering relevant facts.

“….it is evident that when the commission of inquiry was appointed, the government had not considered the significance of the observations and findings of the Waqf Board, or the provisions of the Waqf Act, or the earlier report of the Commission of Inquiry, followed by its approval by the government itself, the judgment of this court in Writ Appeal No. 2001/ 2022 and above all, the pending proceedings before the Waqf Tribunal. The finality prescribed by section 40 of the (Waqf) Act, the bar of jurisdiction under Section 85 of the Act and even the implications of section 51(1)(a) of the Act were also not borne in mind by the government. The government acted mechanically and without proper application of mind in appointing the Commission of Inquiry. Thus, relevant facts which would have had a bearing on the appointment of the commission of inquiry were not concerned by the government,”.

The petition was filed by Waqf Samrakshana Vedhi, challenging the appointment of the Commission headed by former HC judge Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair.

Reacting to the new development, Nair said he had nothing to say as it was for the state government, which only needed to respond.

Meanwhile, the Vijayan government, according to sources in the know of things, is likely to go in for an appeal before the division bench.

The residents of Munambam have been protesting as they could not pay land tax or get mutation of properties from the Kuzhupilly Village Office over claims that the properties have been registered as Waqf lands.

The residents claim that their predecessors had brought the property from Farook College. The main issue in the matter is whether Siddhique Sait, who gifted the property to Farook College in 1950, intended it to be a Waqf property or not.

–IANS

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