New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (April 17) refused to put an interim stay on the provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 but directed that status of waqfs, including waqf-by-user already declared by notification or gazetted shall not be changed until the next hearing.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan passed the interim order on a batch of pleas challenging constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
The top court bench granted the Centre to file its response and took on record its submissions that non-Muslims would not be appointed to the Central Waqf Councils and state Waqf Boards and the status of waqfs, including waqf-by-user already declared by notification or gazetted shall not be changed.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, sought a week’s time to file its preliminary reply with some documents and urged the bench not to put an interim stay on the provisions based on prima facie reading of some sections.
Mehta argued before the bench that the legislation was brought by the government in response to lakhs of representation and staying the amended legislation would be an extremely harsh step and the issue cannot be decided hastily without deeper deliberation.
“we received lakhs and lakhs of representation. Villages and villages are taken as waqf and so many land is claimed as waqf. This court may hear it but this question needs assistance. A large no of people has question on their property. The matter has significant public implications,” Mehta submitted.
The apex court is hearing over 70 petitions, including pleas filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed challenging the constitutional validity of the Act. The Centre had on April 8 filed a caveat in the top court and sought a hearing before any order was passed in the matter.
