The Supreme Court on Monday commenced hearings on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, with the Centre urging the bench to confine the proceedings to three key issues for the purpose of passing interim orders.
Appearing for the Union government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the court could first deliberate on three specific concerns—whether properties declared as waqf by courts can be denotified, the legality of waqf-by-user, and waqf-by-deed—before proceeding to wider questions around the law.
"The court had earmarked three issues. We had filed our response to these three issues. However, the written submissions of the petitioners now exceed several other issues. I have filed my affidavit in response to these three issues. My request is to confine it to the three issues only," the law officer.
However, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing one of the petitioners opposed to the current Waqf framework, strongly objected to the Centre’s proposal. Sibal argued that the matter involves constitutional questions and cannot be adjudicated in a piecemeal manner. “You cannot dissect the challenge. The law must be examined in its entirety,” he submitted.
One of the issues is the power to denotify properties declared as waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed.
The second issue raised by the petitioners relates to the composition of state waqf boards and the Central Waqf Council, where they contend only Muslims should operate except ex-officio members.
The third issue relates to a provision that says a waqf property will not be treated as a waqf when the collector conducts an inquiry to ascertain if the property is government land.
The hearing is underway and Sibal commenced advancing submissions and is referring to the background of the case.
On April 17, the Centre assured the top 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 Centre had 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.
On April 25, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs filed a preliminary 1,332-page affidavit defending the amended Waqf Act of 2025 and opposed any "blanket stay" by the court on a "law having presumption of constitutionality passed by Parliament".
The Centre notified the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 last month after it got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5.
The bill was cleared by Lok Sabha with the support of 288 members while 232 MPs were against it.
The Rajya Sabha saw 128 members voting in its favour and 95 against it.
