SC refuses to entertain fresh plea against Waqf (Amendment) Act

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a fresh petition challenging the recent amendments to the Waqf Act, 1995.

A bench, headed by CJI Sanjiv Khanna, told the petitioner that it cannot deal with hundreds of petitions on the same issue and that the petitioner may choose to file an intervention application in the petitions challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, if so advised.

The CJI Khanna-led Bench, on April 17, the previous date of hearing, decided to treat five writ petitions as lead cases and said that other pleas will be treated as intervention applications. Further, it ordered the apex court registry to rename the cause titles of the proceedings as “In Re: The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025”.

The Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, granted a week’s time to the Centre and state governments and the Waqf Boards to file their preliminary reply.

During the course of the hearing, the Union government assured the Supreme Court that it would not de-notify provisions related to ‘waqf by user’ or include non-Muslim members in the Waqf Board.

Posting the matter for further hearing on May 5, the apex court said that the hearing fixed on the next date will be a preliminary hearing and, if required, interim orders will be passed.

In its preliminary affidavit, the Centre said that it brought amendments to prevent abuse of waqf legislation, which resulted in the encroachment of government properties, apart from ensuring that the Waqf Boards in the country are properly administered and function with transparency.

“It is submitted that there have been reported misuse of waqf provisions to encroach on private properties and government properties. It is really shocking to know that after the amendment brought in the year 2013, there is a 116 per cent rise in auqaf area,” the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs said.

The Centre, in its reply document filed before the top court, said that it was found that most of the Waqf Boards have been functioning in the “most non-transparent manner” and have either not uploaded the details in public domain or have uploaded partial details.

The Union government said that under the old regime, due to the absence of adequate safeguards, government properties and even private properties were declared as waqf properties.

“The provisions of Sections 3A, 3B and 3C take care of the said situation which has been prevailing since several decades. It is submitted that there are startling examples whereby the government lands or even the private lands were declared as waqf properties,” it said in the affidavit.

The Union government said that the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, was passed with the objective of modernising the management of waqf properties in India through transparent, efficient and inclusive measures. It argued that the reforms introduced are directed solely at the secular and administrative aspects of waqf institutions – such as property management, record-keeping, and governance structures – without impinging upon any essential religious practices or tenets of the Islamic faith.

The preliminary reply document filed by the Union government said that before introducing the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, there has been a detailed executive level and Parliamentary level exercise in order to understand the problems plaguing the previous statutory regime, the consequences, and the appropriate measures that were required to remedy the same. The Centre contended that the “primary religious right being the right to make a dedication is not interfered with, and neither is the administration of any specific waqf interfered with as the same continues to be vested with the mutawalli as per the purpose behind such waqf”.

IANS