Hyderabad: The Wakf Board has identified that more than 70 per cent of Wakf lands, worth more than `25,000 crore, have been encroached upon in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State.

A preliminary study conducted by special officer of the Board M.J. Akbar, revealed that the Board had 1,45,511 acre in both states under 35,703 institutions. Out of this, 81,591 acre have been encroached upon.

The Board also noticed that landed property worth of crores was under litigation. The special officer admitted that there are no applicable laws to protect the Wakf lands. Mr Akbar said on Friday that the Board had constituted a three-member legal advisory committee headed by retired High Court judge Vamana Rao, and retired district and sessions judges E. Ismail and Syed Abdullah.

He said that there were 18 cases pertaining to properties in TS, four cases in Andhra and two cases from Rayalaseema, pending in the Supreme Court. He also said that 12,628 cases pertaining to both the states are pending before the Hyderabad High Court.

He also said counter affidavits have not been filed in hundreds of cases and in some cases, for more than 10 years. Mr Akbar said, “The delay in filing affidavits from the Board has led to many cases being lost in the courts. When we requested, the retired judges agreed to volunteer their services to advise the Board to carry out legal battles to protect the Wakf lands.”

Justice Vamana Rao said, “It is the Board’s responsibility to select competent lawyers to represent its cases and only then can it protect its properties.”