Jammu, Sep 22 (IANS): The notification of J&K Waqf Board issued in 1985 in which over 500 Kanals of land were notified as Waqf property in Poonch district was challenged in the high court in 2018 and because of the deliberate delay being caused by the concerned deputy commissioner in replying the court notices, the case is still pending, Ankur Sharma, advocate told IANS.

Sharma said in 1985 the Waqf board arbitrarily notified prime land measuring over 500 Kanals in Poonch town as its property.

"The said notification included the offices of the deputy commissioner and the district information officer as well.

"In 2012 the deputy commissioner Poonch wrote a letter to the government stating that all lands notified by the Waqf board in 1985 in Poonch town are recorded as state land and not as Waqf land in the revenue records.

"Subsequently, in 2018 the Waqf board started issuing notices to people occupying these lands stating therein that the lands were being illegally occupied by them and eviction proceedings would be started against them," Sharma said.

He filed a petition in the J&K High Court on behalf of the people in Poonch and in the petition Sharma has challenged the Waqf board notification of 1985 saying that the notification should be scrapped.

He further said that the lands given by the Waqf board were arbitrarily allotted to benefit a particular community thereby causing huge losses to the public at large.

The advocate has alleged that in order to appease a certain community the revenue officials are deliberating delaying replies to the court notices thereby trying to derail the process of justice.