Supreme Court to hear pleas against Waqf Amendment Act tomorrow

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Wednesday a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

As per the cause list published on the website of the apex court, a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna and comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, will take up the matter for hearing on April 16.

Multiple petitions have been filed before the top court challenging the constitutional validity of the recent amendments introduced in the Waqf Act, 1995.

On the other hand, several BJP-ruled states, including Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Uttarakhand, have approached the Supreme Court seeking to defend the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

Similarly, the Hindu Sena filed an intervention application before the apex court supporting the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. "There is no violation of any right of any member of the Muslim community. Rather the unamended provision of Waqf Act, 1995 caused serious prejudice to the right and interest of the non-Muslim members of society as in view of Section 3 read with Section 40 of Waqf Act, 1995, the properties of non-Muslim were taken over by Waqf board," the application filed by the National President of Hindu Sena argued.

After the legislation was passed by the Parliament in the first week of April, the Congress announced it will challenge the Waqf (Amendment) Bill (now an Act after the Presidential assent) before the Supreme Court, claiming that it was an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution and was aimed at "polarising" and "dividing" the country on the basis of religion.

On the other hand, the government has said that crores of poor Muslims will benefit from this legislation, and in no way does it harm any single Muslim. Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has said the legislation did not interfere with the Waqf properties, adding that the Modi government works with the vision of 'Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas'.

In his petition filed before the apex court, Congress MP and party whip in Lok Sabha Mohammad Jawed contended that the amendments violated Articles 14 (right to equality), 25 (freedom to practice and propagate religion), 26 (freedom of religious denominations to manage their religious affairs), 29 (minority rights), and 300A (right to property) of the Constitution. Another plea filed by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the impugned amendments are "ex facie violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, 29, 30, 300A of the Constitution of India and manifestly arbitrary". Several others, including the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan, Maulana Arshad Madani of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the Indian Union Muslim League, Taiyyab Khan Salmani, and Anjum Kadari, have filed the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

The concept of ‘Waqf’, rooted in Islamic laws and traditions, refers to an endowment made by a Muslim for charitable or religious purposes, such as mosques, schools, hospitals, or other public institutions.

--IANS

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