Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday declared the reconstitution of the Delhi Waqf Board and the appointment of its chairman as illegal and void ab initio. The announcement comes about a month after Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan resigned as the chairman of the body, following allegations that he had "illegally appointed" a number of people to people to different posts in the authority, including his friends and relatives, PTI reported.

The legislator from Okhla was appointed the Delhi Waqf Board's chairman in March, months after the AAP government took over the body, claiming it had found issue with the process of selecting the board's chief. The reconstituted Waqf board now remains suspended. The body's term would have expired in December 2016, and five from the seven-member body had already resigned.

The Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government had launched a preliminary inquiry into the alleged recruitment scam early in September on the complaint of one Mohammad Mustafa. On September 8, the agency had raided the board's office in connection with the case and collected documents related to appointments made to various posts.

Khan had claimed that the raids were Jung's attempt to interfere with the functioning of the Waqf board, which takes care of all Muslim properties in the Delhi-National Capital region that are used for religious or charitable purposes. "We have followed all the due legal procedures in recruitment...The L-G is knowingly creating hurdles in the working of the Waqf board," he had said.

The AAP leader had resigned as the chairman of the body on September 10, saying he had "run out of patience" of issuing clarifications for the appointments. "...False allegations are being levelled against me and my family to frame us. I want to be free from all the responsibilities given to me by the government, and therefore, I tender my resignation from all the posts," he had said in a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.