Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind approached the Delhi High Court on Friday to oppose a petition challenging certain Waqf Act provisions that grant special status to Waqf properties. Petitioner and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay said he is “objecting to the intervention” and claimed that the applicant body is a “separatist organization” that had “supported triple talaq”. He also informed the court that he will seek a transfer of his plea to the Supreme Court on account of the pendency of other similar matters there.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the petitioner to file his reply to the impleadment application moved by Jamiat and directed that the matter be called for hearing on November 4. “Let notice be also issued to the Central Waqf Council,” the court said.
The lawyer appearing for the Jamait Ulama said the petition would impact the entire institution of waqf in the country and all the state waqf boards should be heard before any order is passed by the court. The petition, while assailing certain provisions of the Waqf Act, has sought a direction to the Centre to enact a “uniform law for trust and trustees, charities and charitable institutions, and religious endowments and institutions” and claimed that waqf properties cannot enjoy any “special rights” that have not been given to the trusts, charitable and religious institutions run by non-Islamic religious groups.
“The institution of waqf is well recognised in our country with a comprehensive legal mechanism in place for the same and the ‘Waqf’ refers to Muslim religious endowments,” the application stated.