Supreme Court refuses to stay entire Waqf Act, puts some provisions on hold

Supreme Court delivered its verdict on Waqf Amendment Act, 2025 today

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the entire Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, while putting certain key provisions on hold, including that a person must have been a practising Muslim for five years to create a Waqf.

A bench of chief justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih interfered with the following provisions while passing the interim order today --

-The Supreme Court has put on hold the provision in the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025 that a person should be a practitioner of Islam for 5 years to create a Waqf. It said the provision will be stayed till rules are framed on determining whether a person is a practitioner of Islam. Without any such rule/ mechanism, the provision will lead to an arbitrary exercise of power, the Court said, according to a report by Bar and Bench.

- Another provision of the Waqf Act which empowered a collector to determine whether a property declared as Waqf is government property and pass orders has also been stayed. The top court said the collector cannot be permitted to adjudicate rights of personal citizens and this will violate the separation of powers.

-While it did not stay the provision permitting the nomination of non-Muslim members to Waqf Boards, the top court observed that, as far as possible, ex-officio members of the Boards should be Muslims. The court further noted that the Central Waqf Council should not have more than four non-Muslim members, while State Waqf Boards should not include more than three.

The top court, however, denied staying the requirement for registration of Waqf properties, noting that this aspect was there in the earlier laws as well.

"We have held registration existed since 1995 to 2013.. and again now. So we have held registration is not new," the CJI said.

Supreme Court refuses to halt entire Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025

Pronouncing an interim order, a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said, “We have considered prima facie challenge to each of the sections and found no case was made out to stay the entire statute.”

The top court on May 22 had reserved its order on three key issues, including the power to denotify properties declared as "waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed", which cropped up during the hearing of pleas challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.