On Friday, the Kerala High Court lifted a major hurdle in a decades‑old land dispute in Munambam, a coastal village in the state’s Kottayam district. The court cleared the way for a state‑run inquiry commission that the government had set up to settle a clash between about 600 residents and the Kerala Waqf Board.
The dispute centers on a piece of property that, in 1950, Siddhique Sait donated to Farook College in Thiruvananthapuram. Decades later, the Kerala Waqf Board declared the land a waqf (religious endowment), which invalidated earlier sales. The move sparked protests from the villagers, who say they have been paying land taxes and trying to register their holdings for years, only to find the land marked as inalienable.
In November 2024, the state government appointed a panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge C.N. Ramachandran Nair to find a permanent solution for the “bona fide” occupants and other buyers. That commission, however, was struck down on March 17 by a single judge, who said the petition filed against it was not from the real parties in interest.
Now, a division bench of Justices S.A. Dharmadhikari and Syam Kumar V.M. overturned that ruling. They said the petitioners – the Kerala Waqf Samrakshana Vedhi and similar groups – did not show they were directly harmed. The court called out that they acted on behalf of “certain other interested parties with ulterior purposes,” and questioned why they didn’t file a public‑interest petition instead.
“The petitioners were essentially standing in for invisible third parties, trying to grab the land from Farook College management,” the court noted. It also pointed out that Farook College, who still claims the 1950 deed was just a gift, had never challenged the government’s commission.
With the High Court’s decision, the inquiry commission can now proceed. The move may bring an end to a long‑standing land battle that has seen residents fight over tax payments, property registration, and ownership rights for more than 70 years. The court also re‑affirmed an important legal principle: only those directly affected can challenge the state’s actions in court.
Source: ianslive
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