Hyderabad High Court: Why not digitalise Wakf land records?

Hyderabad: Questioning the petitioner on what was the difficulty if the state government desired to digitalise records of Wakf land, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday asked the government to file counter affidavit on a PIL challenging the sealing the office of Telangana State Wakf Board. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G Shyam Prasad was dealing with a PIL by city advocate M.A.K. Mukheed challenging the sealing of the Board office and seizing records.

Advocate-General D. Prakash Reddy, said only four rooms where the land records were stored were sealed, and the other eight are allowed to function. Mr Muqeeth Qureshi senior counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the Wakf office could not function due to non-availability of records which were in the sealed rooms.

The managing committee meet of the Board which was scheduled on November 18 was postponed for the same reason, Mr Qureshi said. Justice Ramesh Ran-ganathan and Justice G. Shyam Prasad said though there was some obstruction at initial stage, but the end result of digitalisation of records will benefit the Wakf Board. While asking the Advocate-General to take steps to make available the records for Board meeting adjourned the case for counter affidavit.