Waqf Act: The Supreme Court proposed to pass an order that properties declared as waqf including ‘waqf by user’ will not denotified. Centre opposed it and sought a further hearing.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday started a hearing on a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, and during the hearing of the matter, the apex court told Centre, ‘You cannot undo the past’.
During the hearing of the matter, Justice Khanna stated that when a public trust was declared Waqf 100 or 200 years ago and suddenly you say it is being taken over by the Waqf Board and declared otherwise, Mehra intervened and said that it means if one has a Waqf, it can be made into a trust, and there is an enabling provision for it. To this, Chief Justice remarked, “You cannot rewrite the past!”
Check the top 10 developments of the hearing in the Supreme Court:
- The Supreme Court asked the Centre how ‘waqfs-by-user’ would be registered, as there may be a lack of documents.
- The Supreme Court also told the Solicitor General that if waqf-by-user properties are denotified, it will be an issue.
- The apex court observed that any property declared waqf or any property declared waqf by the user or declared by the court shall not be de-notified.
- The CJI asked the Solicitor General about how the government will register such waqfs-by-user and what documents they will have. “It will lead to undoing something. Yes, there is some misuse, but there are genuine ones, also. If you undo it, then it will be a problem,” the court said.
- The Supreme Court also expressed concern over violence taking place over the Waqf (Amendment) Act. “The one thing that is very disturbing is the violence that is taking place. The issue is before the court, and we will decide,” the CJI said.
- The Supreme Court said it will continue its hearing on Thursday on a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
- The Centre recently notified the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which got the assent of President Droupadi Murmu on April 5 after its passage from Parliament following heated debates in both houses.
- The bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with 128 members voting in favour and 95 opposing it. It was cleared by the Lok Sabha with 288 members supporting it and 232 against it.
- As many as 72 petitions, including those by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed, have been filed challenging the validity of the Act.
- The Centre, on April 8, filed a caveat in the apex court and sought a hearing before any order was passed in the matter. A caveat was filed by a party in the high courts and the apex court to ensure that no orders are passed without hearing it.