Centre to SC: won’t make appointments to waqf councils and boards or denotify existing waqf properties for now

The Supreme Court on Thursday, 17 April, directed the Centre to file its stand within a week in the challenge to the recently passed Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

This came after the Centre assured the court that it would neither denotify waqf properties, including "waqf by user", nor make any appointments to the central waqf council and boards till May 5, the next date of hearing.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta submitted before a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan that the waqf law was passed by Parliament after "due deliberations" and it should not be stayed without hearing the government.

The Centre also strongly opposed the apex court's proposal to pass an interim order against the denotification of waqf properties, including "waqf by user", aside from staying a provision allowing the inclusion of non-Muslims in the central waqf councils and boards. The bench recorded the assurance given by the Solicitor General.

"During course of the hearing, SG Mehta states that the respondents would like to file a short reply within 7 days and assured that till the next date, no appointment shall take place to board and councils under the 2025 Act. He also assures that waqfs, including waqf by user, already declared by notification or gazetted, their status shall not be changed," the court noted in its order.

The CJI said if registration of any waqf property had taken place under the erstwhile 1995 Act, then those properties cannot be denotified until the next hearing on 5 May.

The bench passed the order after Mehta sought a week's time to file a preliminary response to the pleas against the newly-amended waqf law. "If your lordships will say something about 'waqf by user', what will be the fallout?" he asked.

The bench, on the other hand, said it was impossible to deal with a number of pleas on the issue and clarified that it would only hear five of the approximately 70 which have been filed, while asking lawyers to decide among themselves who would argue.

"It is not possible to read 110-120 files. Under the circumstances, hearings will be conducted on five major challenges. All petitioners must agree on those five points with the help of nodal counsel," the bench said.

The petitioners, the bench said, could file their rejoinders to the Centre's reply within five days of the service of the government's response.

Among the strongest challenges to the new Act are:

1. The law violates articles 14, 15, 25 (religious freedom), 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs), 29 (minority rights), and 300A (right to property) of the Constitution.

2. It provides for the inclusion of non-Muslims in waqf boards and gives a district collector the power to decide on waqf property, potentially increasing government interference.

3. The law discriminates against the Muslim community as other religious trusts do not have the same restrictions

With PTI inputs