New Delhi: Soon after Amit Shah delivered his speech in support of the Waqf bill in Lok Sabha, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that the union home minister “misled” the parliament by claiming that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had given away 123 public properties to the Waqf board. She claimed that the 123 properties that Shah mentioned had been in dispute since the colonial era, from the time when the British acquired large parcels of land in and around Raisina Hills area to build New Delhi.“Many Muslim religious properties, mosques, graveyards, madrasas were in this area. Muslims protested, and an agreement was reached between the British govt and Muslims that the British govt would not acquire 123 religious properties, and these remained under Muslim management. These were formally registered as religious properties with the British govt. (Between) 1943–1945, British transferred the management of these 123 properties to Sunni Majlis Auqaf, with no time limit,” Shrinate wrote on X. She later explained how after independence, these properties remained under the control of the Sunni Majlis Auqaf which became the Delhi Waqf Board and continued to be used for religious purposes. Shrinate said that although the government of India officially notified the properties under the Waqf Act, 1954, the Delhi Development Authority and Land and Development Office challenged their ownership. Burney CommitteeLater, Shriante said, the Indira Gandhi government in 1974 formed the Burney Committee to resolve the dispute. The Committee handed over the properties to the government of India but agreed that it should lease them to the Delhi Waqf Board at Rs 1/acre annually. Shrinate indicated that the matter blew out of proportion in 1984 when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to advance its anti-Musllim agenda challenged the arrangement in the court and said that it could pay the government of India a higher lease of Rs 100 per acre. The Delhi High Court stayed the lease that lasted until 2011, following VHP’s appeal. It is in this context that that the UPA government in 2014, on directions of the Delhi High Court to resolve the dispute, denotified the 123 properties and agreed to return them to the Delhi Waqf Board, as all these properties were operational dargahs, mosques, burial grounds, or eidgahs. VHP oppositionThe UPA government merely made the status quo official, Shrinate indicated. However, VHP took objection and moved the Election Commission and the Delhi High Court again. After the BJP came to power in 2014, Shrinate said, it formed a one-member committee led by Justice J.R.Aryan to review the UPA government’s decision. Aryan submitted a report (in 2017), supporting Delhi Waqf Board but the report was not made public, Shrinate said. Aggrieved by its own committee’s report, the BJP government in 2018 formed yet another committee consisting of two members to review the matter. Based on the second report, the Land and Development Office on February 8, 2023, declared that the Delhi Waqf Board had no claim over these 123 properties. “Notices were pasted outside the properties,” Shrinate said. The Delhi Waqf Board had already challenged the formation of the two-member committee and filed a writ petition at the High Court in 2022. It claimed that it was never notified by the two-member committee, because of which it didn’t even get a chance to raise its objections. “So why did you mislead Parliament? Why do you habitually lie Mr Shah,” Shrinate asked.
