New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted the Centre a week’s time to file a response to the petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
The Supreme Court noted an assurance by the Centre that the status of any notified or registered waqf property, including ‘waqf by user’ ones, will not be changed till the next date of hearing.
The Centre also gave an undertaking that no appointments will be made to the Waqf Council or the Waqf Boards till the matter comes up for hearing again before the bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice P V Sanjay Kumar and Justice K V Viswanathan.
The matter will come up for hearing again on May 5, by when the responses by the Centre, states and petitioners opposing the Act will be filed. The Court has directed the petitioners to select five petitions that will be treated as lead petitions by the bench.
Over the two days of hearings, the Supreme Court expressed concerns about three aspects of the amended Act. One of these is the treatment of ‘Waqf by User: property. Such properties are those declared as Waqf due to their use by Muslims during festivals.
The second is the appointment of non-Muslims in the Waqf Boards. The third is the treatment of government land that has been declared Waqf property. Another contentious issue is the availability of deeds for property declared as Waqf hundreds of years ago.
