NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday proposed to hold the properties declared by courts as waqfs should not be de-notified, whether they are by waqf-by-user or waqf by deed.
Considering a batch of a matter challenging the validity of the Waqf Amendment Act 2025, a bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Vishwanathan also indicated to pass the order that the proviso of the Amendment Act, as per which a waqf property will not be treated as a waqf while the Collector is conducting inquiry whether the property is a government land, will not be given effect to.
The court also opined that all members of the Waqf Boards and Central Waqf Council must be Muslims, except the ex-officio members.
Taking up challenge to validity of the amendment act, the bench indicated to pass the tentative interim order as it decided to consider the matter on Thursday as well, on a request made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the central government.
The bench also noted its concern over ongoing violence in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, saying, "one thing is very disturbing is the violence that is taking place. If the matter is pending here it should not happen."
After the two-hour long hearing, the bench also proposed to seek a response from the Union government on over 100 petitions challenging validity of the law but declined to consider any stay on the operation of the law as of now. Instead the court proposed to pass interim order to balance the equity.
The court also quizzed Mehta over inclusion of non Muslims to the board to manage the waqf properties. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi, Sanjay Hegde, C U Singh, appeared for petitioners assailing the amendment act.
The court asked the Centre whether Muslims would be allowed to be part of Hindu religious trusts. It also wanted to know from Mehta, how "waqf by user" can be disallowed as many will not have requisite documents to get such waqfs registered.
The bench observed that we were told Delhi High Court is built on Waqf Land. "We are not saying all Waqf by user is wrong, but there is genuine concern," the CJI Khanna told Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners.
