What to expect as SC set to hear batch of pleas challenging Waqf Amendment Act

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf Amendment Act, even as protests continue in several parts of the country against its controversial provisions.

 

The pleas, including that of AIMIM chief Asadudding Owaisi, will be heard by a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan.

 

While taking up the matter last month, the top court had raised some pertinent questions to the Centre, after which the government paused two central aspects of the contentious law.

 

The government had assured the court that it would neither denotify Waqf properties nor make any appointments to the Central Waqf Council and boards till May 5.

 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, had requested the court not to stay the law without hearing the government. Following this, the bench granted a week's time to the Centre to file a preliminary response to the pleas.

 

In its affidavit, filed on April 24, the government informed the court that the law respects the essential religious practices of Muslims by leaving matters of faith and worship "untouched". It also alleged blatant misuse of the law amended in 2013.

 

"Right before even the Mughal era, pre-Independence era and post-Independence era, the total of wakfs created was 18,29,163.896 acres of land in India. Shockingly, after 2013, the addition of wakf land is 20,92,072.536 acres,” the affidavit said.

 

Those who moved the Supreme Court against the law included DMK, YSRCP, AIMIM, the Left parties, civil society groups such as NGOs and some Muslim bodies.

 

The law passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5.

India