Hours after Parliament passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025, AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress MP Mohammad Jawed moved the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of the Bill.
In his petition, Congress MP Mohammad Jawed challenged the amendments to the 1995 Act governing Waqfs, claiming it violated Constitutional provisions, and said they “disproportionately increase state intervention.”
The plea alleged the bill imposed “arbitrary restrictions” on Waqf properties and their management, undermining the religious autonomy of the Muslim community.
What does the plea say?
The petition filed by the Congress MP contests that the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2025, violates the Constitutional rights that are guaranteed under Articles 14 (right to equality), 25 (freedom to practice religion), 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs), 29 (minority rights) and 300A (right to property).
The Congress MP contends that non-Muslim trusts enjoy a certain degree of self-regulation but the “amendments to the Wakf Act, 1995 (“Wakf Act”), disproportionately increases state intervention in Waqf affairs. Such differential treatment amounts to a violation of Article 14 in addition to introduction of arbitrary classifications that lack a reasonable nexus to the objectives sought to be achieved, making it impermissible under the doctrine of manifest arbitrariness.”
Speaking with ANI after moving the Supreme Court, Mohammad Jawed said, “Several people in India will file this petition, several parties will do this. In Parliament, everyone in the Opposition said that this is unconstitutional. This is a religious body – you are providing freedom to non-Muslims…How can you snatch away our right?..How can you do this violation?”
“If you have numbers, it doesn’t mean you get passed anything you passed and do something unlawful…We have challenged this. We hope that Supreme Court will take cognizance of this and this will be repealed (Bill) at the earliest.”
The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with 128 members voting in favour and 95 opposing it. It was passed in the Lok Sabha early April 3, with 288 members supporting it and 232 against it.
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