Supreme Court Partially Stays Key Provisions of Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025

The Supreme Court of India on September 15 issued an interim order on the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, declining to suspend the law in full but staying several of its contested provisions.

Among the sections put on hold is the requirement that a person must have practised Islam continuously for five years in order to dedicate a property as waqf. The Court directed that this provision will not take effect until the central government frames appropriate rules.

Another provision that has been stayed concerns the power to derecognize waqf properties immediately upon initiation of an inquiry by an officer above the rank of collector. The court found this clause “prima facie arbitrary,” cautioning that such determinations cannot be treated as final and must allow for challenge before a waqf tribunal or high court.

However, the Court upheld several other parts of the amendment. It found the inquiry into government land declared as waqf property legitimate, stating that property held by the government in trust cannot be wrongfully claimed if declared waqf in contravention.

On the issue of non-Muslim involvement, the court sustained the provision limiting who may dedicate waqf and directed that both the Central Waqf Council and State Waqf Boards may include up to four and three non-Muslims respectively, but with restrictions.

The case remains pending; future hearings will decide the validity of the other contested provisions under the amended law.