Kerala High Court refuses to stay the State's reconstitution of the Waqf Board and sends the pleas to a Division Bench

17 October 2026

Justice S. Manu, sitting on Saturday, 17 October 2026, declined to stay a State order of 16 October 2026 that cancelled the appointments of the sitting Kerala State Waqf Board members and nominated nine new members.
The petitioners, K.S. Hamza and C.K. Usman Haji, the Board's former chairperson and member, argued that the amended Waqf Act permits removal of members under Section 20 and supersession of the Board under Section 99 only in specified situations.
The Additional Advocate General told the court that the earlier Board had been constituted without complying with Section 14, which deals with representation of different Muslim communities.
The court relied on the Supreme Court's judgment in The State of Maharashtra v. Shaikh Mahemud, that the power to appoint Board members carries with it the power to cancel those appointments.
It said that prima facie it found no merit in the submission that the reconstitution contradicted what the State had earlier told a Division Bench.
It directed that the reconstitution remain subject to the outcome of the two writ petitions, issued notice to the new members, and referred both pleas to the Division Bench already hearing related petitions.