Rs 14.16 cr rent dues under HC watch; govt urged to open escrow account

TheHC directed the Principal Secretary (Minority Welfare) to open an escrow account and deposit Rs.14.16 crore in it until further orders.

Justice Shravan Kumar passed the direction while hearing the writ petition filed by Mecca Madina Alladin Wakf, Banjara Hills, and three other trusts. The amount of Rs.14,16,99,475 represents rents due from 452 tenants occupying properties belonging to the four trusts — Mecca Madina Alladin Wakf, Alladin Charities and Zakt Wakf, Alladin Charities Wakf and Alladin Educational Endowment Trust, Banjara Hills.

The trusts challenged the Telangana State Waqf Board’s continued control and management of their properties after April 8, 2025. According to the petitioners, the board had taken over the direct management of the trusts in January 2012 and continued to exercise control even after the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 came into force.

Senior counsel J Prabhakar Sripada submitted that the amended law, which came into force on April 8 did not apply to the four trusts. He argued that the board was therefore not entitled to continue managing their properties. The counsel said even after 15 months of the new law coming into force, the board had continued to collect rents from the properties and had allegedly not used the funds for the purposes for which the trusts were established.

According to the petitioners, the trusts were created to promote educational and social welfare of Muslims in Mecca, Madina and Jeddah, including by establishing educational institutions and providing financial assistance for technical, industrial and other secular education.

The counsel told the court that board officials had stopped collecting rents from the tenants. As a result, more than Rs.14 crore had accumulated as dues. The petitioners alleged financial irregularities in the handling of the amounts already collected by the board. After hearing the submissions, the court directed the Principal Secretary (Minority Welfare) to open an escrow account and deposit Rs.14,16,99,475 in it until further orders. For further hearing, the case was adjourned to September 29.

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