HC dismisses plea against Delhi govt's nomination for election to Wakf Board member

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the public notice issued by the Delhi government nominating Amanatullah Khan for election to a member of the Delhi Wakf Board.

A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, while dismissing the plea, noted that the petitioner has even not included Amanatullah as a party in the petition. the bench also observed that "this is not a PIL at all".

The High Court's observation came after Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for Delhi government, strongly opposed the plea stating that the petitioner Mohd Tufail Khan has a history of filing petition in this regards.

This is not in the interest of the public, Jain added during his submission.

The petitioner, through advocate Rajeev Kumar Yadav, stated that Amanatullah Khan who is nominated for the election is not having clean criminal antecedent and is found to be involved in corruption, in spite of this, his name has been nominated.

Yadav submitted that on November 10, 2016, a complaint was made by Lt Governor of Delhi to CBI against Amanatullah Khan for corruption and irregularities in Delhi Wakf Board and on the basis of the complaint, one FIR dated November 23, 2016, has been registered by the CBI under several relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The petition alleged that in the year 2019 the CEO of Delhi Wakf Board made a complaint dated February 21, 2019, for corruption and irregularities in Delhi Wakf Board for misappropriation of Wakf land worth Rs 10,000 crore.

It sought thorough investigation in the criminal complaints registered against Amanatullah Khan and also sought deletion of the name of him from the notice issued nominating him.

The Delhi government had on August 7, 2020, through a public notice issued a list which nominated the names of several candidates for the election of Waqf Board including the name of Amanatullah.

"As per rule 11 of Delhi Waqf Rules, 1997, eligible persons for the election of members of Delhi Waqf Board to go in the category mentioned in the Sub Clause (ii) of clause (B) of Sub-Section (1) of Section 14 of the Waqf Act, 1995," the notice, which nominated the names of Abdul Rehman Amanatullah Khan, Hazi Yunus, Tinran Hussain, and Shoaib Iqbal, said.

( With inputs from ANI )