SRINAGAR: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to stay the entire Waqf Amendment Act, 2025, but put on hold certain contentious provisions, including the one that required a person to have practised Islam for five years before creating a waqf.
Delivering its interim order, a bench led by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said there is a strong presumption in favour of the constitutionality of legislation, and courts interfere only in the “rarest of rare” cases. “We have considered the prima facie challenge to each of the sections and found no case was made out to stay the entire statute,” the bench said.
The court, however, stayed two crucial provisions. The first is the one that mandated proof of five years’ practice of Islam before creating a waqf. The bench said the rule would remain suspended until states frame a mechanism to determine such practice. The second relates to the power given to district collectors to decide whether a property declared as waqf was actually government land. The court held that collectors “cannot be permitted to adjudicate rights of personal citizens” as that would violate the principle of separation of powers.
The bench also placed restrictions on the composition of waqf boards and the central waqf council, ruling that the number of non-Muslim members cannot exceed three on any board, and not more than four in total. While it refused to stay the amendment permitting the appointment of non-Muslims as chief executive officers of waqf boards, it advised that, as far as possible, the CEO should be a Muslim.
Petitioner advocate Anas Tanweer welcomed the order, saying it recognised the absence of any mechanism to determine whether someone had been a Muslim for five years. “The court has not stayed the entire Act, but provisions like the five-year requirement have been suspended,” he said.
The Centre had opposed any stay, with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta arguing that the amendments only dealt with the secular management of waqf properties and did not infringe religious freedoms. The government maintained that the five-year requirement was consistent with the pre-2013 legal position, when only Muslims were allowed to create waqfs.
President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill on April 5, after Parliament passed it following heated debates. The law has since been challenged in the Supreme Court, where hearings concluded in May.
