Challenge to Waqf (Amendment) Act: Supreme Court to take up petitions on Wednesday

Petitioner advocate Hari Shankar Jain has challenged more than a dozen provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995, contending they violated the fundamental rights of non-Muslims under Articles 14 (right to equality), 15 (right to non-discrimination), 21 (right to life and liberty), 25 (right to religion), 27 (right not to be compelled to pay taxes for promotion of any particular religion) and 300A (right to property) of the Constitution.

Jain – who has been at the forefront of legal fight for reclaiming of Hindu temples – submitted that the impugned provisions conferred undue benefits on Muslims and discriminated against non-Muslims, the petitioners submitted.

As advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain mentioned Hari Shankar Jain’s petition before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for listing on Wednesday along with 10 other petitions against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, the CJI said he would consider listing it urgently.

A Bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice KV Viswanathan is scheduled to take up on April 16 as many as 10 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, including those filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Arshad Madani.

The other petitioners were RJD MP Manoj Jha and another, AAP MLA in Delhi Amanatullah Khan, Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama and another, Taiyyab Khan Salmani, Anjum Kadari, Mohammad Shafi and another and Mohammad Fazalurrahim and another.

As Madani urged the top court to stay the operation of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, the Centre has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to pre-empt the possibility of any ex-parte order.

The CPI, Tamil actor-turned-politician Vijay and the YSRCP-led by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy have moved the Supreme Court against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. The DMK has also filed a petition against the amendment through its party Deputy General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP A Raja, who was also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill.

Governments of six BJP-ruled states of Assam, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra on Monday moved the Supreme Court in support of the amendment.

The petitioners alleged that the amended law imposed “arbitrary restrictions" on Waqf properties and their management, undermining the religious autonomy of the Muslim community and took away various protections accorded to Waqfs and discriminated against Muslims.

However, the petition filed by Jain on Tuesday demanded that Hindus/Non-Muslims should be entitled to approach civil courts in disputes relating to waqf and land belonging to Hindus and common village land should be identified and recovered from Waqf Boards.

Disputes between Waqf Boards and non-Muslims over land must be decided by civil courts and not Waqf Tribunals, Jain demanded.

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