The Supreme Court has stayed the operation of two contentious provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025, while issuing guidelines on another.
A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih halted the enforcement of Section 3(1)(r), which required a person to have practised Islam for at least five years to create a Waqf. The top court said this provision will remain suspended until state governments frame rules to determine how the condition would be applied.
The bench also stayed the provision empowering a government-designated officer to decide disputes over whether a Waqf property had encroached on state land. The judges held that allowing an executive officer to adjudicate such disputes would undermine the separation of powers, stressing that only judicial bodies can decide the rights of private citizens. Until Waqf Tribunals take up these disputes, the court directed that no third-party rights can be created over the contested properties.
On the third disputed clause, which permits the inclusion of non-Muslim members in Waqf Boards, the court refused to stay the provision. However, it clarified that, as far as possible, ex-officio members should be Muslims. The bench capped the number of non-Muslim members: no more than four in the Central Waqf Council and no more than three in a State Waqf Board.
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