Centre Requests Supreme Court Hearing Before Orders on Petitions Challenging Waqf Act

Supreme Court: After being passed by both houses of Parliament and signed into law with the President's approval, the Waqf Amendment Bill became an Act of Parliament. However, the bill triggered strong protests from various political parties and Muslim organizations, who have since filed petitions against the bill in the Supreme Court. The hearing on these petitions has been listed for April 16 before the Supreme Court for consideration regarding the challenges against the Waqf law.

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Political entities and Muslim groups protesting the bill after its passage are of the opinion that it erodes the independence of Waqf boards- some of which administer charitable and religious properties-feeding such possible mismanagement of Waqf properties by the new law. Thus, over ten petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court refusing the very constitutionality of the law.

The government has thereafter also filed a caveat before the Apex court praying that the court should not give any orders or dispose of the case without hearing the side of the respondent government; having taken the legal step, any order in this case would require opinions from the side of the government before passing the judgement.

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Several obvious political and religious parties have also filed petitions against the Waqf Amendment Bill. The DMK, Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi, AIMIM-Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress MP Mohammad Javed, AIMPLB et cetera.

The bill has been condemned as one that has the potential to effect a change in the working of the Waqf boards, the commissioners of which manage and supervise the properties dedicated for charity and religion. Critics contend that the Act may centralize such Waqf properties and diminish the role of the State Waqf Boards, as well as local communities, in making decisions.

April 16, 2023, is a very important hearing before the Supreme Court, wherein the very fate of the Waqf Amendment Law will lie; it is here where the petitioners' judicial challenges will be confronted by the government in its defence of the law.

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