New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai on Tuesday (May 20) said that there is a presumption of constitutionality for the statute and courts cannot interfere unless a glaring case is made out.
A bench comprising CJI Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih is hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
“There is a presumption of constitutionality for the statute and courts cannot interfere unless a glaring case is made out,” CJI Gawai said while hearing the submissions made by petitioners.
Currently the petitioners are making submissions before the bench. The Centre will make arguments after petitioners.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who argued for the petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of the law, argued that the law is meant for protection for waqf but the same has been aimed at capturing waqf and has been designed in such a way that waqf property is taken away without following any process.
“This act is for waqf protection but it is aimed at capturing the waqf. The law is designed in such a way that waqf property is taken away without following any due process. The officer deciding deciding the dispute is a government officer and while it is decided, the property ceases to be a waqf and anybody can create a dispute,” Sibal argued and added, “It is capturing waqf properties across the country through executive fiat.”
Sibal further questioned various provisions of the law.
Earlier at the start of the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, urged the bench to confine the hearing for passing interim orders to three issues – the power to denotify properties declared as “waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed”, composition of state waqf boards and Central Waqf Council and inquiry by collector to ascertain if the property is government land.
The bench during the last hearing said that it would hear on May 20 for interim relief on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the waqf law.
The matter was earlier being heard by a bench headed by former CJI Sanjiv Khanna, who transferred on May 5 the bunch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the waqf law to a bench headed by Justice Gavai.
