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The Hindu
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Kerala moves SC to protect its ‘large percentage of Muslims' from 2025 Waqf amendments
Kerala has moved the Supreme Court to protect the fundamental right of the 'quite a large percentage of Muslims' in the State to manage their own religious affairs while challenging the provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act of 2025. The State said the Muslim population of Kerala was wary about the consequences of the 2025 Act on their waqfs and waqf properties. 'They have got genuine apprehension that implementation of the present amendment Act would deny them their fundamental rights under the Constitution including Article 25; and that the implementation would negate or alter the nature and status of waqf and waqf properties. The State feels that the apprehension of the Muslim minority in Kerala that they are discriminated against in the matter of right to manage religious affairs, the waqf and waqf properties is genuine,' an intervening application filed through State counsel, advocate C.K. Sasi, submitted. The State said it found many of the provisions of the amendment Act 'highly unjust and their constitutional validity doubtful'. Kerala said it wanted to intervene in the waqf challenge and sought its day in court against the 2025 Act. 'The State is very much interested in the outcome of the case. The State has got valid legal and constitutional submissions to be made before this court,' the application said. 'Once a waqf, always a waqf' Kerala argued that a waqf -- once a waqf would always be a waqf. 'Nobody, including the waqf or his heirs, can alter the nature of the properties involved in a Waqf after its creation. The new provision would definitely make the status of the existing waqf uncertain/or alter the nature of waqf,' the State noted. Earlier, the Kerala State Waqf Board had moved the Supreme Court, contending that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on waqf 'completely ignored' it and the State. 'The main grievance put forth by the Kerala State Waqf Board is that the present JPC did not visit the State of Kerala… The Kerala State Waqf Board is one of the best working Boards in the country as reported by the JPC in 2013. But the present JPC completely ignored the State of Kerala and the Kerala State Waqf Board,' the State's Waqf Board through A. Haseeb, the Chief Executive Officer (in-charge), represented by advocate Subhash Chandran, had submitted. A Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih is scheduled to hear the waqf law challenge for an entire day on May 20. The court would hear arguments for and against an interim order to stay the provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. In April, a Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna (now retired), Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan had nudged the government into making a statement that it would not change the character or alter the status of waqf properties across the country on the basis of the 2025 amendments. Over a 100 petitions were initially filed in the case, with many following. This had led the Supreme Court to convert the case into a suo motu one in order to avoid duplicate petitions and repetitive arguments in court. The petitions have argued that the 2025 amendments infringed upon and prejudiced the rights of Muslims across the country. The amendments fundamentally altered the governance, creation, and protection of Waqf properties — Islamic endowments dedicated perpetually to Allah for religious and charitable purposes. The enhanced role of state in the waqf administration impinged on the right of the Muslim community to manage its institutions The petitions have highlighted that amendments omitted the concept of Waqf-by-User affirmed by the Supreme Court itself as a property which would attain the status of waqf through long-standing religious use. Further, an amendment to the composition of the Waqf Board and the Central Waqf Council has mandated inclusion of non-Muslim members in waqf administrative bodies.
The Hindu
25-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Kerala Waqf Board tells Supreme Court it was ‘completely ignored' by JPC
The Kerala State Waqf Board has moved the Supreme Court contending that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on waqf 'completely ignored' it and the State. 'The main grievance put forth by the Kerala State Waqf Board is that the present JPC did not visit the State of Kerala… The Kerala State Waqf Board is one of the best working Boards in the country as reported by the JPC in 2013. But the present JPC completely ignored the State of Kerala and the Kerala State Waqf Board,' the State's Waqf Board through A. Haseeb, the Chief Executive Officer (in-charge), represented by advocate Subhash Chandran, submitted. The Board said JPC had just met some stakeholders in the State in Bengaluru. 'The stakeholders and beneficiaries from the State of Kerala have been severely discriminated against,' the Board claimed. The Waqf Board was responding to an April 17 order of the apex court which had recorded the Centre's statement that neither would waqfs be denotified nor appointments of non-Muslims be made under the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. Objecting to the 2025 amendments, the Kerala Board since 'a Waqf Board is an organisation that supervises the properties set apart for pious, religious and charitable deeds according to Islamic beliefs, naturally the members of Waqf Board must be only Muslims'. The apex court is scheduled to hear the waqf case on May 5, 2025.
