On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to admit any new petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. However, it granted liberty to the petitioners to raise fresh grounds of challenge through applications in the main case scheduled for hearing next week.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna stated, “The primary challenge in the main matter is based on legal and constitutional grounds. If there are further arguments that have not yet been raised, you may submit them via an application.”
The court was addressing 24 new writ petitions seeking to challenge the 2025 Act and requesting they be heard alongside the main matter currently pending. Earlier, the bench had instructed petitioners from an earlier batch of 70 cases to select five representative petitions covering all essential legal questions involved.
“We have already listed five representative cases. If there are any additional issues, you’re free to file an application. We will hear all sides. The idea is to avoid unnecessarily expanding the case records, which could lead to delays,” remarked the bench, which also included Justice Sanjay Kumar.
Senior Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien, stated that the petition sought to highlight dissenting opinions recorded by Opposition members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee. He agreed to withdraw the separate plea and file an application in the main case scheduled for May 5.
Some of the petitions had also called for a stay on the implementation of the Act.
In a previous hearing, the court had recorded assurances from the Centre that no non-Muslims would be appointed to the Central Waqf Council or the State Waqf Boards, including the one in Delhi. The government had also assured that the status of waqf-by-user properties would remain unchanged.
The petitions, submitted by Muslim MPs, scholars, religious leaders, and community organizations, argue that the Act infringes upon the fundamental right of Muslims to dedicate property as Waqf.
Among the five petitions selected for detailed hearing are those filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Arshad Madani, social worker Muhammad Jameel Merchant, AIMPLB general secretary Mohammed Fazlurrahim, Manipur MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan, and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
These petitions express particular concern over waqf-by-user properties—longstanding endowments lacking formal registration but historically used as waqf—facing de-notification due to new registration requirements. The petitioners argue that this could jeopardize the status of numerous traditional religious and charitable institutions across India.
In its affidavit, the Centre clarified that the Waqf Council and State Boards are not religious bodies but administrative ones overseeing the secular aspects of waqf properties.
While acknowledging that the creation of waqf is a religiously encouraged practice in Islam, the government contended that Islamic doctrine does not prescribe how waqf properties must be managed or supervised. The Act, it said, does not alter the religious nature of waqf, but merely regulates its administrative and secular mechanisms.
