Tushara is one of the five families that received notices from the Kerala Waqf Board, claiming that the land parcels they owned belonged to the board. Tushara stated that the Waqf Board could take over her land only over her dead body.
Wayanad, Kerala: It was a bolt out of the blue for Tushara Ajith Kumar, a homemaker from Wayanad when she learned that a notice had arrived at her house from the Kerala Waqf Board.
Tushara’s husband, Ajith Kumar, son of Havaldar Kunjuraman, was equally shocked by the notice and initially hesitant to disclose it to his wife, unsure of how to handle the situation.
Tushara is one of five families that received notices from the Kerala Waqf Board, claiming that the land parcels they owned belonged to the board.
Holding a copy of the notice in her hand, Tushara firmly stated that the Waqf Board could take over her land only over her dead body.
An emotionally overwhelmed Tushara revealed that her father-in-law had owned 75 cents of land in the Talapuzha village. He had meticulously maintained all the requisite land documents dating back to 1949 and continuing through the late 1960s after purchasing the land from a Christian family. In recent years, he distributed the land among his six children, including Tushara’s husband, Ajith Kumar.
Tushara suspects the issue began when she recently attempted to sell a small portion of her family’s ancestral property. This attempt was met with objections from three members of a masjid committee at a local mosque in Talapuzha. The committee members of Thalapuzha Hayathul Islam Jamiat claimed the land belonged to the Waqf Board and warned her against selling it, stating they would escalate the matter to the Waqf Board headquarters in Kochi.
Tushara later discovered that notices had been issued to five families in Talapuzha village on October 28. The notice pertains to a parcel of land measuring 5 acres and 77 cents, listed under survey number 47/1 in the village.
The Waqf Board has claimed ownership of this land based on an oral submission by an elderly Muslim cleric in 2022. Tushara learned this from her Muslim neighbours, who also received similar notices.
She further claimed that around 50 families own small parcels of land within this 5-acre and 77-cent area. Although these families have not openly confirmed receiving notices, Tushara believes they too will face trouble sooner or later.
Tushara’s son, Jithul, conducted extensive research on the Waqf Acts and its amendments, and the family is now consulting an advocate to challenge the notice.
Hamsa Faizi, a 70-year-old Muslim neighbour who runs a stationery shop on Talapuzha Town’s main road, also received a notice from the Kerala Waqf Board. The notice claimed that the 13 cents of land he owned belonged to the Waqf Board.
Hamsa explained that he had purchased the land in 1993 before travelling to a Gulf country for work. Since then, he has regularly paid property taxes and maintained his land records diligently. Hamsa emphasized that there had never been any mention of Waqf in his land documents, nor had anyone hinted at such a possibility.
Hamsa, too, is consulting an advocate to prepare a reply to the notice. November 16, the date mentioned in the notice, requires property owners to present themselves before the Waqf Board with supporting documents to prove ownership. The notice warns that failure to appear repeatedly would result in a decision being made in the owner’s absence.
NDA candidate Navya Haridas, who contested the by-polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, visited Talapuzha and assured the families that she would not allow the Waqf Board to take over anyone’s land.
Sources within the BJP alleged that the Kerala Waqf Board was working overtime to issue notices to landowners indiscriminately to acquire as much land as possible before the Union government introduced amendments to the Waqf Act.