The State government issued a gazette notification on Monday for setting up the Wakf Tribunal at Kurnool having jurisdiction over the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Advocate-General S. Sriram told The Hindu that the State was not having a Wakf tribunal for the last seven years and the common tribunal at Hyderabad refused to take up matters related to Andhra Pradesh.
He pointed out that these were quasi-judicial bodies under various enactments on a par with the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), and no law required them to be on the same premises as the High Court. The location of the tribunal in Kurnool had nothing to do with the Decentralisation Act, he asserted.
It may be noted that the government had issued notifications for setting up the SHRC and the Institution of Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayukta in Kurnool and the latter had even started functioning from a temporary office there.
