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The A.P. State Wakf Board (Now Telangana State Wakf Board) v. Syed Masood Ahmed & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1152Decided 26 Oct 2026
Civil Appeal No. 2804 of 2024, with Contempt Petition (C) Nos. 842 of 2026 and 635 of 2026
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

The Wakf Board sued for an injunction protecting its possession of land tied to a mosque's upkeep, notified as wakf property since 1989, against private defendants whose predecessors held only an unregistered sale agreement. The High Court reversed a Trial Court decree in the Board's favour, finding insufficient proof of possession.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court restored the injunction, holding that an earlier Survey Commissioner's Report had already established the land as wakf property, meaning the defendants' vendors never had any right to sell it. The 1989 gazette notification further confirmed this, and since neither the defendants nor their vendors had challenged that notification within the one-year statutory limitation period, the question of title was never genuinely in dispute.

Lesson Learnt

Land notified as wakf property cannot be validly transferred by private sale, and anyone wishing to dispute a wakf notification must do so within the statutory limitation period: silence for decades forecloses the challenge entirely.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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The A.P. State Wakf Board (Now Telangana State Wakf Board)…