Waqf Amendment Act 2025 BIG UPDATES: Supreme Court imposes stay on few clauses, collector can’t decide property right

In a major development, the Supreme Court on Monday pronounced judgment on a plea to stay the implementation of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. The case had reached the Supreme Court in early April, hours after the Waqf (Amendment) Bill of 2025 was cleared by the Parliament. Over a 100 petitioners described the act as a “creeping acquisition” of Muslim properties while the government defended as a necessary counter to “rampant encroachment” on public and private properties.

Before reserving the interim order, the bench heard arguments by advocates appearing for those challenging the amended waqf law, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, on three consecutive days.

Here are some of the key observations:

• The Supreme Court does not stay the Waqf (Amendment) Act in its entirety, saying that the presumption is always in favour of the constitutionality of a statute.
• The Supreme court did not intervene in the case of waqfs by user as it noted that the registration of waqfs has been going on since the 1995 enactment through the 2013 enactment.
• The court makes it clear that waqf bodies should have a majority of Muslim members.
• Waqf Boards and Waqf Council may have up to three/four non-Muslim members. The Chief Executive Officer should be ideally a Muslim, it said.
• The Bench of the Chief Justice of India(BHARAT) B.R. Gavai and A.G. Masih stayed Proviso 2 of Section 3C which mandates a disputed property would not be treated as waqf unless the executive permits it after an enquiry.
• “We have considered the prima facie challenge to the sections — the case was not made to stay entire provisions of the Act,” said the Bench
• Presumption is always in favour of the statute. The grant of stay is only in the rarest of rare category. Though the entire Act was presumed to be challenged, only certain provisions were directly challenged, said the Bench.