UP Sunni Waqf Board takes over land under Jauhar Trust

LUCKNOW: UP Sunni Waqf Board has taken direct control of Waqf number 157, commonly known as the land belonging to the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust headed by Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan.
The Board’s chairman using his special powers has put the Waqf under an administrator-executive officer Junaid Khan, who will now be managing the over 5 acres of Waqf property for a period of five years until further notice.
While the decision was taken in March, it could not be delivered due to the lockdown. Junaid Khan received the Board’s letter recently.
As per the official document (TOI is in possession of it), the Sunni Waqf Board had an “apprehension of the Waqf property being encroached upon and present mutawwali being unable to manage the Waqf and there being no other person fit to be recognised as mutawwali.” This formed the premise to take over the property.
“Land was given to the Trust which was its mutawwali. Now, Waqf number 157 is under direct management of the board and nobody else,” said UP Sunni Central Waqf Board CEO SM Shoeb.
Speaking to TOI, Junaid Khan said, “The land was enlisted as Waqf by Nawab Raza Ali Khan of Rampur as an orphanage in the 1900s. Some 40-42 descendants of those orphans were living on the land. In 2016, they were removed and Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust took over the property.”
“An underconstruction school occupies about 35% of the land and in addition some 26 people brought back to their home on the area. Once the office resumes, the management of its affairs will be taken control of by the board through me as its administrator,” he said.