Pleas against Waqf Act in SC: Once a Waqf, always a Waqf, says Kapil Sibal
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, has been framed to protect Waqfs, but in reality, it is designed to capture Waqf through a non-judicial, executive process.
According to an ANI report, Sibal, who is representing petitioners challenging the Act in the Supreme Court also said that 'Waqf is an endowment to Allah (god) and pursuant to that, the property cannot be transferred - once a Waqf, always a Waqf.'
Sibal also said that 'earlier, though the property was preserved as an ancient monument, the identity of the property did not change from being a Waqf and get transferred to the government. Now, such Waqf property shall be void, and once Waqf is void, people will be stopped from going to pray. The right to freely practice religious activity is curtailed.'
The apex court was on Tuesday hearing pleas challenging constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which was notified last month after it got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5.
The bill was cleared by Lok Sabha with the support of 288 members while 232 MPs were against it. The Rajya Sabha saw 128 members voting in its favour and 95 against it. The Centre urged the Supreme Court to confine the hearing on pleas challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act for passing interim orders to three issues, including the power to denotify properties declared as 'waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed', the ANI report said. The submission was opposed by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for those challenging the provisions of the 2025 law, that there cannot be any piecemeal hearing, it added. One of the issues is the power to denotify properties declared as waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed. The second issue raised by the petitioners relates to the composition of state waqf boards and the Central Waqf Council, where they contend only Muslims should operate except ex-officio members. The third issue relates to a provision that says a waqf property will not be treated as a waqf when the collector conducts an inquiry to ascertain if the property is government land.
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