Welcoming the Supreme Court ruling on the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said it was very good sign for democracy.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi slammed the Opposition for criticising the amendments to the Waqf Act and said those involved in communal attack on a constitutional reform are neither well-wishers of the country nor any religion.
“I believe that whatever the Supreme Court has ruled is a very good sign for our democracy,” Rijiju told reporters after the groundbreaking ceremony of the Centre of Excellence in Heritage Languages and Cultural Studies at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus in Mumbai.
“The provisions in the Act are beneficial to the entire Muslim community,” the Minority Affairs minister said. The misuse, including encroachment of property through Waqf Board,
will now be stopped with the new legislation, the minister added. “The Supreme Court was aware of the whole issue,” he said, describing the Supreme Court as a beacon of India’s parliamentary democracy.
The Waqf legislation was passed in Parliament after the longest discussion in history, Rijiju said.
The Government presented all the facts and the rationale behind the bill before the Supreme Court, the minister said. Naqvi said in New Delhi the much-needed Waqf (Amendment) Act is the guarantee for the protection of religious faith and historic reform in the administration of Waqf.
Asked about the Supreme Court’s interim order, Naqvi told reporters that this is a constructive law made by Parliament after extensive deliberation and debate in both Houses of Parliament.
It has nothing to do with any religious practice or custom, he said. Lashing out at the critics of the amendments, Naqvi said some people are terming the law related to land as the “words written in a heavenly book” because they want a “legal licence to loot”.
Naqvi said the Waqf law is an administrative reform and not a religious one.
“Those involved in the communal attack on constitutional reforms are neither well-wishers of the country nor any religion,” he said.