Kerala Hindu body moves SC against Waqf Act - ‘threatens the very existence of the Muslim community'

Mint

05-05-2025

A Kerala-based Hindu organisation, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, arguing that the law threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India, legal news website Bar and Bench reported.
The organisation, Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust, established in 2023 to study and dissemination of the values and teachings of the sage and philosopher Sree Narayana Guru, has sought to intervene in the batch of petitions challenging the provisions of the amended Waqf law.
"Given the teaching of Sree Narayana Guru about the inter-dependent nature of the well-being of all persons and communities, the 'Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust' cannot be an idle spectator to the devastating impact of the impugned Act taken as a whole on the Muslim community of India and to social justice in our country," it has told the top court, Bar and Bench, reported.
On 5 May, Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna bowed out of the Waqf law case, with four working days left in his tenure ahead of retirement on May 13, saying he did not want to reserve or pass any interim orders.
The hearing on Waqf petitions will has been listed before a bench headed by justice Bhushan R Gavai on 15 May.
The Centre has filed its 1,332-page preliminary affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking dismissal of petitions, pointing out a "mischievous false narrative" surrounding certain provisions of the law.
On 17 April, the SC granted the Centre a week's time to file a response to the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the controversial law. The government then assured the apex court that it would neither denotify waqf properties, including "waqf by user", nor make any appointments to the Central Waqf Council and boards till 5 May.
"The impugned Act explicitly but erroneously treats the Waqf mechanism as a non- religious institution, thus deleting in its entirety the body of Islamic law as the basic governing law of Waqf, replacing Islamic law with the law laid down by the Impugned Act," the application by Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust says.
It argues that the amended law imposes on the entire Muslim community of the country "an unconstitutional sui generis state-designed and state-imposed scheme" for controlling charitable donations by Muslims.
"The Impugned Act is un ultra vires because the Parliament has no power to impose such a scheme on any section of the people and is therefore a fraud on the Constitution. This sui generis state-designed and state-imposed scheme violates the constitutional rights of the Muslim community under Articles 21, 25, 26 and 29(1)," the plea adds.
The petition has also argued that Muslim community will be left without the economic and financial wherewithal to sustain the practice of their religion as a result of the government takeover of the Waqf mechanism.
"The Impugned Act thus threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India which depends for its survival on the Waqf mechanism which has been for centuries, and continues to be, the most important source of economic and financial resources essential for the practice and survival of Islam in India. As the Impugned Act will liquidate the economic and financial foundations of the Muslim community," the plea states.
The top court recently refused to entertain any fresh plea against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, saying it had already been made clear that the court would hear only five of the over 70 litigants on the issue.
The Centre notified the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 last month after it got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5.
The Impugned Act threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India which depends for its survival on the Waqf mechanism.
The top court recently refused to entertain any fresh plea against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, saying it had already been made clear that the court would hear only five of the over 70 litigants on the issue.
The Centre notified the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 last month after it got President Droupadi Murmu's assent on April 5.
First Published: 5 May 2025, 05:21 PM IST