NEW DELHI: Hours after Parliament passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Congress MP Mohammad Jawed and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday separately moved the Supreme Court challenging its validity on the grounds that it violated constitutional provisions.
The Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in the wee hours of Friday with 128 members voting in favour and 95 opposing it. Under the amended law only self-owned resources can be declared as Waqf after ensuring the inheritance rights of women and children and the DC will determine that land being donated by a Muslim is actually in his ownership. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill a day before with 288 members supporting it and 232 against it. Now, it awaits President Droupadi Murmu’s assent to become an Act.
However, Jawed — a Lok Sabha MP from Kishanganj, Bihar — alleged that the amended law imposed “arbitrary restrictions” on Waqf properties and their management, undermining the religious autonomy of the Muslim community.
The proposed law discriminated against the Muslim community by “imposing restrictions that are not present in the governance of other religious endowments”, contended Jawed – who was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Bill.
In a separate petition, Owaisi contended that the bill took away various protections accorded to Waqfs and Hindu, Jain, and Sikh religious and charitable endowments alike. “This diminishing of the protection given to Waqfs while retaining them for religious and charitable endowments of other religions constitutes hostile discrimination against Muslims and is violative of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion,” the AIMIM chief submitted.
The Bill sparked protests in Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad where thousands came out on streets against it. Protests also erupted in Manipur’s Imphal Valley where about 200 people gathered under the banner of Santhel United Development Committee and held a demonstration at the Santhel Idgah in Imphal West district.
In the national capital, students of Jamia Millia Islamia protested against the Bill, calling it communal and unconstitutional.
While DMK and Congress have already announced that they would challenge the amended Waqf law, other opposition parties were likely to follow suit. “The INC (Indian National Congress) will very soon be challenging in the Supreme Court the constitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill,” AICC general secretary in-charge organisation Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
In his petition, Jawed alleged that the Bill “introduces restrictions on the creation of Waqfs based on the duration of one’s religious practice”. “Such a limitation is unfounded in Islamic law, custom or precedent and infringes upon the fundamental right to profess and practise religion under Article 25,” Jawed contended.
The restriction discriminated against persons who had recently converted to Islam and wished to dedicate property for religious or charitable purposes, thereby violating Article 15 of the Constitution which prohibited discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, he submitted.
The amendments “irreversibly dilute” the statutory protections afforded to Waqfs and their regulatory framework while giving undue advantage to other stakeholders and interest groups, undermining years of progress and pushing back Waqf management by several decades. Appointing non-Muslims on the Central Waqf Council and the State Waqf Boards disturbs this delicate constitutional balance and tilts it to the detriment of the right of Muslims as a religious group to remain in control of their Waqf properties,” Owaisi said.
“The Amendment Act, 2025, marks a departure from this consistent progression towards affording greater protections to the rights of the Muslim community under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution and charts a new course of diluting the protections to waqfs undermining the rights of the minority communities in its properties and expanding the interference of the State over waqf administration,” Owaisi submitted in his petition.
Jawed’s petition also assailed the Bill for omitting the concept of “Waqf-by-user”, saying it was duly affirmed in the top court’s verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute at Ayodhya wherein it was held that a property may attain status of Waqf through long-standing religious use.
By removing this provision, the bill disregards established legal principles and limits the ability of the Waqf Tribunal to recognise properties as Waqf based on historical usage, violating Article 26 which guarantees religious denominations the right to manage their own affairs, Jawed submitted.
Jawed said the amendment to include non-Muslims in the administrative composition of the Waqf Board and the Central Waqf Council was an “unwarranted interference” in religious governance unlike Hindu religious endowments, which were exclusively managed by Hindus under various state enactments.