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- October 2019
Index
Toppers Talk
Art & Culture
Polity
- Right to access internet is fundamental right declares Kerala High Court
- Legal rights of Deities in India, Difference in Natural and Juristic Person
- Bru refugees refuse to return to Mizoram
- No animal sacrifice in Tripura temple-Orders High Court
- EC’s Order on Reducing Sikkim CM’s Disqualification Period
- Law Ministry issues corrigendum to Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act
- Appointment of the Judges in India.
- New Chief Justice of India- How is CJI appointed?
- Indian Penal Code 1860, HM Amit Shah wants to Overhaul IPC
- National Population Register (NPR) 2020
- Whistle Blowers Allegations on Infosys
Governance & Social Justice
- 60% girls in Delhi colleges anaemic
- Niti aayog’s School education quality index
- Multipurpose National Identity Card
- Population pyramid : India Vs China, Demographic dividend Phase of India
- UN Population Report, India will become the most populous country by 2027
- Supreme Court upholds SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendments Act
- Comparing Population Pyramids of India and China
- Waqf boards-Their governance and purpose
- Harvard Admissions Case
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana- Ist Anniversary, Problems and solutions
- Significance of sexual and Reproductive Health-Status of reproductive services in India
- Pregnancy in Old Age, What is In Vitro Fertilisation-Risks and legal shortcomings
- Supreme Court Judgement on NGOs and RTI
- Social Stock Exchange
- Rajasthan Govt changes EWS norms, Sets Rs 8 lakh family income as only criteria
- Global hunger index 2019
- No Government job for those with more than two kids
- Ranitidine CANCER risk
- IIT Council Introduces Tenure track system
International Relations
- Bangladesh growing faster than India ?
- Cyprus dispute explained
- Donald Trump impeachment
- India wins Hyderabad Nizam case against Pakistan
- India’s reply to Pakistan at UNGA
- Prime Minister of Malaysia calls India and invader in Kashmir
- Should India recognise the armenian genocide ?
- Why are CARICOM countries important for India ?
- Why are countries leaving OPEC ?
- Attacks on Saudi Oil facilities
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation issues statement on Jammu and Kashmir
- Sri Lanka’s relations with India & China
- US troops start pullout in Syria as Turkey prepares for operation
- What are Vanilla Islands?
- India-USA trade deal
- UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award-2019
- Modi – Xi Informal meet at Mamallapuram – Historic Chinese links
- India China informal summit in Tamil nadu
- Pakistan save from FATF blacklist till 2020
- USA blacklists China organisations over Uighur Muslim abuse
- Why is Chile burning ?
- Why is the Philippines important for India
- Xi jinping Nepal visit 2019 and impact on India
- India Pakistan Cross LOC Trade suspended, Should India revoke suspension?
- Protests in Lebanon
- Chennai to Vladivostok Sea Route
- End of baghdadi
- Indian government’s security advisory
- Indians no longer require Visa to visit Brazil
- Non Aligned Movement 2019 summit
- US backed Ceasefire between Turkey and Kurds
- Pakistan stops postal exchange with India
- China’s GDP growth slows to 6% slowest in 27 years
- Common Goods for Health project by WHO
- Turkey attack Kurds in Syria
Geography
Economy
- Behavioural Aspect of Farmer Suicide
- Is rural India really open defecation free ?
- Global Growth Slow Down
- Nobel Prize in Economics 2019
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
- SBI wrote off bad loans worth 76,000 crores
- Surge in Onion Price
- Agriculture Credit by RBI’s Internal Working Group
- What is Debt to GDP Ratio?
- Yes Bank Crisis
- Nobel prize in Literature – Controversy
- Boosting Indian Exports
- Sopore Fruit Mandi deserted
- What is Pink Collarisation?
- Mizoram to have Broad Gauge railway line by 2021
- Demand downturn in Indian Economy
- Payment facilitation fund
- Participatory Guarantee Scheme
- RBI’s 4th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy 2019-20
- Tourism restrictions lifted in Kashmir
- Link between Jobs, Farming, and Climate
- Draft Social Security Code 2019
- State Tax Revenues, SGST and Central Tax Devolution are likely to fall short
- Competitiveness Index 2019 by World Economic Forum
- NITI Aayog’s Water Resources Strategy
- BSNL and MTNL financial issues-DoT prepares Rs 74000 crore revival plan
- 20th Livestock Census
- India falls 10 ranks in World economic forum’s Global competitiveness index
- RBI stops Printing Rs 2000 Notes
- What is the Unified Approach proposal of OECD?
- FCI granaries overflowing
- India’s Economic Growth 2019
- Financial Sector Scams in India
- Labour Market of India
- New Strategic Disinvestment Process
- Payment Delays to Sugarcane Farmers
- Why India’s IMF Quota is not increased
- What is monetary policy Transmission? Why banks are not reducing interest
- Mahatma Gandhi’s theory of Economics
- India moves up 14 spots to 63 on world Bank ease of doing business index
- New amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act
- Power Sector Scenario in India
- Telecos to Pay Rs 96,642 crore to the Government
- Camel population declines in Rajasthan
- Merger of BSNL and MTNL
- World bank on Indian economy
Defence & Security
- Nagas Kukis Conflict, What is the cause of the latest tensions?
- Case against 50 Celebrities controversy
- Can Indian Government intercept WhatsApp?
- UP Government fires 25000 home guards, Is Yogi Government’s decision justified?
- NCRB’s Crime in India 2017 report
- Aadhaar Social Media mandatory linking case
- What is TechSagar? National repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities.
Disaster Management
Science & Technology
- ISRO’S Project NETRA
- Facebook’s LIBRA Currency in trouble
- WHO launches first World report on Vision
- 2019 Nobel prize in physics
- 2019 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine
- Elon musk’s starlink project
- NASA’s ICON mission
- New King of the Moons in the Solar system is Saturn
- What Is Spectroscopy ?
- Quantum supremacy
Environment
- Climate Vulnerable Mapping Of India
- C40 Cities
- Gujarat Unveils emission trading scheme
- Forest Plus 2.0
- Himalayan States seeks Green Bonus
- India to Phase Out Single Use Plastic (SUP) by 2022
- Role of Volcanoes in Global Warming
- NH 766 ban controversy, Protests in Kerala against night traffic ban on the forest stretch
- Climate Change needs Global Solution
- Aarey Forest -2185 trees to be cut for Mumbai metro
- Government to build 1400 km long Green wall
- Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi
- Aerosol formation brightening clouds
- Anthrax outbreak in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Two affected buffaloes died
- Species in News from June to October 2019
- Climate Action Summit 2019
Prelims bits

Tag:GS-2|| Governance & Social Justice|| Vulnerable Sections|| Religious Minorities
Why in News?
- The Uttar Pradesh government has recommended a CBI inquiry into the ‘irregular’ sale, purchase and transfer of Waqf land in the State.
- The Home Department requested a probe into the sale, purchase, and transfer of the land by the Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Shia Central Waqf Board.
What is ‘Waqf’?
- Waqf is the property given in the name of God for religious and charitable purposes.
- In legal terms, permanent dedication by a person professing Islam, of any movable or immovable property for any purpose recognized by the Muslim law as pious, religious or charitable.
- A waqf can be formed through a deed or instrument, or a property can be deemed waqf if it has been used for religious or charitable purposes for a long period of time.
- The proceeds are typically used to finance educational institutions, graveyards, mosques, shelter homes, provide medicines for needy,
What can be a Waqf?
- A waqf may include both movable and immovable properties.
- It may include company shares, accessories of immovable properties, books or money.
- The subject of the Waqf must be in the ownership of the dedicator. One cannot dedicate someone else’s property.
- The dedication in such an arrangement is permanent.
- A waqf can only be created by a Muslim and the person must have attained the age of majority according to the Indian law and should be of sound mind.
How is a waqf governed?
- Waqf Boards are trusts that look after all the property (donated) used for religious purposes and activities.
- There are locals Waqf, state Waqf Boards, and the Central Waqf Council.
- Technically, all mausoleums and burial grounds are on Waqf land.
- The original legislation that started off these trusts in independent India –Waqf Act, 1954
- Amendments in 1995 and 2013.
- A survey commissioner under the Act lists all properties declared as waqf by making local investigation, summoning witnesses and requisitioning public documents.
- The waqf is managed by a mutawalli, who acts as a supervisor.
Legally, what is a Waqf Board?
- A Waqf Board is a juristic person with the power to acquire and hold property and to transfer any such property.
- The board can sue and be sued in a court as it is recognized as a legal entity or juristic person.
- The Waqf Board has powers under the law to administer the property and take measures for the recovery of lost properties of any waqf, to sanction any transfer of immovable property of a waqf by way of sale, gift, mortgage, exchange or lease.
- However, the sanction shall not be given unless at least two-thirds of the members of the Waqf Board vote in favor of such transactions.
State Waqf Board
- Each state has a Waqf Board
- Headed by a Chairperson,
- one or two nominees from the state government,
- Muslim legislators and parliamentarians,
- Muslim members of the State Bar Council,
- Recognized scholars of Islamic theology and
- Mutawalli of the waqfs with an annual income of Rs 1 lakh and above.
Central Wakf Council
- Central Waqf Council is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Minority Affairs was set up in 1964 as per the provision given in the Waqf Act, 1954 as Advisory Body to the Central Government on matters concerning the working of the Waqf Boards
- However, the role of the Council was expanded significantly under the provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2013.
- The Council has been empowered to advise the Central Government, State Governments and State Waqf Boards.
- The Council consists of Chairperson, who is the Union Minister In-charge of Waqf and such other members, not exceeding 20 in number appointed by the Government of India.
- Presently Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union Minister of Minority Affairs the ex-officio Chairperson of the Central Waqf Council.
- The 12th Council was constituted on 4th February 2019.
How many Waqfs in India?
- There are about 5,12,556 registered and non-registered waqf properties in India.
- Currently, there are more than 35,000 Waqf institutions across India.
- 32 state Wakf Boards across the country in twenty-nine states/Union territories.
- States like Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, and the UT Daman & Diu have no wakf Board at present.
Encroachment of Waqf properties
- Some of the Waqf land in various parts of India is encroached.
- As many as 16,844 waqf properties in India have been encroached upon by private and public bodies, according to official data.
- Reasons
- Waqf properties are prime land in most cases.
- Rising land prices and the general scarcity of land.
- Some monuments that were either abandoned or in ruins just after independence, or are spectacular with great historical importance, are under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
- Not just Muslim monuments, but several Hindu, Christian and Sikh monuments too are ‘living’, where prayers continue —like the Jagannath temple in Puri or the Bom Jesus Cathedral in Goa.
- Friday prayers are held at the mosque at the Taj, and the monument is not open for viewing that day.
The Taj Mahal controversy,2005
- In 2005, the Sunni Waqf board demanded the handover of Taj mahal from ASI to itself.
- Argument -All burial places and mausoleums are Waqf property, and because the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built for a Mughal Empress, Shah Jahan’s wife, it should also be handed over to the Waqf.
- Waqf board lost the case in the Supreme court.
UP Sunni Waqf Board and Ayodhya Dispute
- According to the Waqf Act, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board has the power to administer the disputed site.
- In 1945, in a suit before a Faizabad judge between the Sunni and Shia Waqf Boards, it was held that the Babri Masjid is a Sunni Waqf.
- The Sunni Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh became a defendant in 1989.
Way forward
- The judiciary must be vigilant and resourceful in ensuring that the dispute remains within its jurisdiction.
- Only a judicially driven solution is likely to command constitutional legitimacy in these kind of cases
References