WAQF (Amendment) ACT 2025: Urgent Need for Changing the Way the Waqf’s Affairs Are Being Run
Asia News Agency
Over the last weekend, the AIMIM and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board announced a series of protests, including a blackout when lights will be turned off in households. The move is supported by the Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (political party predominantly active in Telangana), YSR Congress Party and the DMK.
There’s no doubt that the Supreme Court’s unexpectedly strong intervention is a setback for the government — but only a temporary one. The celebrations in the Opposition camp are slightly premature.
Supreme Court restricts concerns only to a few of its provisions: The court expressed broad satisfaction with the overall framework of the law, restricting its concerns only to a few of its provisions. These include appointments to the Waqf Council or Waqf Board; and proposed changes to the ‘waqf by user’ — relating to land used by the Waqf for a long time which until now was considered Waqf property even if it was not registered. But it’s going to be a long-drawn-out legal battle.
The BJP, writes Hasan Suroor (Specialist on identity politics and secularism) “while privately furious over the SC ruling, is putting up a brave face in public, calling the pause simply a part of normal legal ‘process’ which is unlikely to have a decisive impact on the final outcome of the case.
“Of course, nobody knows how things will finally turn out, but the petitioners and their supporters need to temper their expectations to avoid disappointment later.
“For, the truth — shorn off all the noise — is that there is an urgent need for changing the way the Waqf’s affairs are being run at the moment — hobbled by corruption, inefficiency and lack of accountability…..The issue is no longer whether ‘to reform or not to reform’ but how to go about the reforms without diluting its essential Islamic character.”
