CPI-M welcomes SC's partial stay on Waqf law

The CPI-M on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court order putting on hold certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, which sparked nationwide protests and debates earlier this year. ''The Hon'ble Supreme Court has stayed certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, including the one that mandated a disputed property would not be treated as Waqf unless the executive permits it after an inquiry,'' CPI-M General Secretary M A Baby said in a post on X.

''The CPI-M welcomes the partial stay,'' he added. The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold several key provisions of the Waqf law, including the clause that only those practising Islam for the last five years can dedicate a property as Waqf, but refused to stay the entire law.

The bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George also pressed pause on the powers given to a collector to adjudicate the status of Waqf properties and ruled on the contentious issue of non-Muslim participation in Waqf boards, directing that the Central Waqf Council should not have more than four non-Muslim members out of 20, and State Waqf boards not have more than three of 11. One of the most significant interventions came in relation to Section 3C, which vested powers in designated government officers to determine the status of Waqf properties. The bench stayed a proviso to Section 3C(2) of the law, which said a property would not be deemed Waqf until a government officer's report confirmed no encroachment. It also stayed the operation of Section 3C(3), which authorised the officer to declare a property as government land and alter revenue records.

The order stalled Section 3C(4), which required the state government to direct the Waqf board to correct its records on the basis of the officer's findings.

''Permitting the collector to determine the rights is against the separation of powers; the executive cannot be permitted to determine the rights of citizens," the bench said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)