New Delhi [India], April 10 (ANI): Intervention applications have been filed in the Supreme Court in support of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, saying the amendments are in consonance with the scheme of Constitution of India.
An intervention application is a request to participate in a legal case or proceeding.
The applications were filed by Satish Kumar Aggarwal, a member of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and Vishnu Gupta, National President of NGO Hindu Sena while opposing the petitions challenging Waqf (Amendment) Act.
The applications stated that there is no violation of any right of any member of the Muslim community.
“A perusal of Section-40 of the Waqf Act, 1995 would show that the Waqf board was empowered to collect information regarding any property which it has reason to believe to be a Waqf property and such property used to be declared as Waqf property. Therefore, in garb of Section-40, the Waqf board acquired of lakhs acres land of others in the name of Waqf property. Therefore, the Parliament was compiled to exercising its legislative power to ament the provision of the Waqf Act, 1995,” the applications stated.
The applications filed through advocate Barun Sinha further stated that no law can be framed on the basis of religious practices with unfettered power to acquire land and property of others.
“Therefore, the Waqf Act, 1954 and subsequent thereto Waqf Act, 1995 are against the very scheme of the Constitution of India. Be it as it may, the Parliament has amended the draconian provisions by the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2024. Therefore, there is no infirmity, illegality in the amendment,” applications submitted.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Vishwanathan is set to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Act on April 16.
The Central government had also filed caveat application in the Supreme Court urging it to hear the government in the petitions filed before it challenging validity of the Act. A Caveat application is filed by a litigant to ensure that no adverse order is passed against him or her without being heard.
Several petitions were filed in the apex court challenging the Act contending that it was discriminatory towards Muslim community and violates their fundamental rights.
President Droupadi Murmu on April 5 gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was earlier passed by Parliament after heated debates in both Houses.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress MPs Mohammad Jawed and Imran Pratapgarhi, AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, MP and President of the Azad Samaj Party Chandra Shekhar Azad, Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal Zia Ur Rehman Barq, President of the Islamic cleric’s body Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind Maulana Arshad Madani, Kerala Sunni scholars’ body Samastha Kerala Jamiatul Ulema, Social Democratic Party of India, Indian Union Muslim League, and NGO Association for Protection of Civil Rights have already approached the top court against the Act.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) also challenged the Act saying it strongly objected to the amendments passed by Parliament for being “arbitrary, discriminatory and based on exclusion”.
Manoj Jha and Faiyaz Ahmad, MP in Rajya Sabha from Bihar’s RJD, have also challenged the Wakf (Amendment) Act, 2025 on the grounds that it facilitates large-scale government interference in Muslim religious endowments. RJD MLA from Bihar Muhammad Izhar Asfi also challenged the Act.
The ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu through its MP A Raja, who was a part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Bill, also approached the apex court against the Act. (ANI)
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