Allahabad HC stays Yogi govt order, reinstates six Shia Waqf Board members

The Lucknow bench of the Uttar Pradesh High Court On Friday reinstated members of the Shia Waqf Board. The court stayed the Yogi Adityanath government's order removing six members of the Shia Waqf Board from their positions.

On June 16, the Uttar Pradesh government had passed orders to dissolve UP Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards on charges of rampant corruption. A day later, six members of the Shia Wakf board were removed from their positions. The court on Friday reinstated the members and stayed the government order.

The government had decided to dissolve both the boards on the recommendations of the Central Waqf Council. After a probe, the council had claimed that the bodies were in the grip of



corruption. The government had ordered for the removal of Shia Waqf Board members including former Rajya Sabha member Akhtar Hassan, Moradabad's Sayyed Wali Haider, Afsha Zaidi of Muzaffarnagar, Sayyed Azim Hussain, Nazmul Hassan Rizwi and Alima Zaidi of Bareilly.

All six were nominated by the previous Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party government.

On Thursday, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court issued directives to the state asking it to produce the original report on the basis of which members were removed. While granting 24 hours time to additional Advocate General Ramesh Kumar Singh to make the government's stand clear on the issue, the court expressed concerns over the removal of nominated board members.