New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (May 2) refused to entertain a fresh petition challenging constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, while making it clear that it would not entertain any fresh plea on the issue, told the counsel representing the petitioner to file an intervention application if the petitioner has some additional grounds.
“If you have some additional grounds, you can file an intervention application,” CJI Khanna told petitioner’s counsel.
A three-judge bench would hear the matter on May 5
A three-judge bench headed by CJI Khanna is scheduled to hear pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Act on May 5. The bench had on April 17 had made it clear it will hear only five of the over 70 pleas challenging the Act.
Apex court on April 29 refused to entertain fresh pleas
The top court earlier on April 29 refused to entertain fresh pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Act.
“We are not going to increase the number of petitions now… This will keep on piling and would become difficult to handle,” it said.
Apex court on April 17 decided to hear only five of over 70 pleas
The top court on April 17 decided to hear only five of the over 70 pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Act and titled the case: “In Re: Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025”. It appointed three lawyers as nodal counsel and asked them to decide among themselves who was going to argue and said that the next hearing in the matter (May 5) will be for the preliminary objections and for passing an interim order.
Apex court granted Centre time to file its response and took on record its submissions
The top court on April 17 granted Centre time to file its response and took on record the submissions made by the Centre, which strongly opposed passing of an interim order without hearing it, that waqf properties, including “waqf by user”, will not be denotified and no appointments will be made to the central waqf council and boards till the next date of hearing (May 5).
The Centre recently filed its response to the pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Act.
