The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider listing for urgent hearing series of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, that there were several petitions on the issue and they needed to be listed for urgent hearing. Besides Sibal, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi and lawyer Nizam Pasha mentioned other petitions for urgent listing.
The CJI, who has done away with the practice of oral mentioning of cases for urgent listing, asked the lawyers to file letters or send mails for getting the matters listed before a bench. When Sibal said the same has already been done, the CJI said, “I will see the mentioning letter in the afternoon and take a call. We will list it.” Pasha mentioned the petition filed by Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was earlier passed by Parliament after heated debates in both Houses. Several pleas, including those by Congress MP Mohammad Jawed, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, were filed in the top court challenging the validity of the Act. Congress, DMK and Kerala’s Muslim League has already announced approaching the top court against the Waqf Act.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) filed the plea in the top court late April 6. In a press statement, SQR Ilyas, the AIMPLB spokesperson, said the petition strongly objected to the amendments passed by Parliament for being “arbitrary, discriminatory and based on exclusion”. The amendments, it said, not only violated the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India but also clearly revealed the government’s intention to take complete control over the administration of Waqf, therefore, sidelining the Muslim minority from managing their own religious endowments.
In its petition, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has said that this law was a “direct attack on the country’s Constitution, which not only provides equal rights to its citizens but also grants them complete religious freedom”. It claimed the Act was a “dangerous conspiracy” to strip Muslims of their religious freedom. “This bill is a dangerous conspiracy to strip Muslims of their religious freedom. Therefore, we have challenged the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, in the Supreme Court, and the state units of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind will also challenge the constitutional validity of this law in the high courts of their respective states,” the Jamiat stated.
In its separate plea filed in the top court, Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema, a religious organisation of Sunni Muslim scholars and clerics in Kerala, has claimed the Act was a “blatant intrusion” into the rights of a religious denomination to manage its own affairs in the matter of religion. The plea, filed through advocate Zulfiker Ali P S, said these amendments would “distort” the religious character of Waqfs while also irreversibly damaging the democratic process in the administration of Waqf and Waqf Boards.