Apex court gives seven days to the Centre to respond to challenges to Waqf Act
NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Thursday put a partial stay on the implementation of the new Waqf law. The court also extracted a promise from the Union government that no appointment of non-Muslims would be made to the Waqf Council and the boards and all properties declared or registered as ‘waqf by users’ would not be de-notified till the next date of hearing.
The court gave the Centre seven days to file its stand on the challenge to the Waqf Act. In addition, the court has set May 5 to hear pleas against the validity of the Act.
The court’s interim order essentially means that the character of Waqf properties cannot be changed for now.
The Centre termed the issue “serious” and sought a week to file its response. The court allowed the petitioners to submit their rejoinders within five days thereafter.
The Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, asked the Centre to file its reply to the petitions seeking stay and challenging the validity of the recent amendments introduced to the Waqf Act, 1995, within a period of seven days.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan that the Centre will not implement certain contentious provisions of the Waqf Act, for the time being.
The bench recorded a statement by the solicitor general in this regard, even though he contended that the court should not take a harsh stand by indirectly staying the Waqf Amendment Act, 1995.
“We don’t want the situation to change. There are provisions like 5 years (practice of Islam) which we are not staying,” the bench said.
In view of the multiplicity of the petitions, the apex court told the petitioners to choose five lead pleas to be decided by the apex court, adding that the other petitions may be treated as applications or deemed to be disposed of.
The apex court directed its registry to rename the matter as “In Re: Waqf Amendment Act”.
It also ordered the appointment of nodal counsel to facilitate the filing of pleadings and written submissions before the apex court. The matter is likely to be listed next on May 5 for further hearing. — Based on media reports
