Kerala Plans To Reconstitute State Waqf Board, Notification Likely Soon

The Kerala government is preparing to dissolve the State Waqf Board, with an official notification likely to be issued soon, sources said.

The move follows an assessment that several members of the existing board may not meet the eligibility criteria prescribed under the rules. 

The government is also expected to nominate two non-Muslim members in line with the amended Waqf law, after taking into account the Supreme Court's verdict on the matter.

The board was constituted on February 4 with nine members, and K S Hamza was appointed chairman in March. Although the board has a five-year tenure, the government is now moving to dissolve it with nearly four-and-a-half years of its tenure remaining.

The state government had earlier informed the Kerala High Court that the Waqf Board needs to be reconstituted. It had also stated that the mandatory representation process was not completed before the earlier reconstitution and that it was prepared to reorganise the board after fulfilling the required procedure.

Under the amended Waqf law, the board should comprise 11 members, including two non-Muslim representatives. At present, some members in appointed under categories such as mutawalli and religious scholar are nominees of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.