Left leaders welcome SC's 'partial stay' on Waqf law

New Delhi, Sep 15 (PTI) The Left parties 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 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.

Welcoming the decision, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby said in a post on X, "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... The CPI-M welcomes the partial stay." CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar, in a statement, welcomed the interim order and said the apex court's intervention confirms that the amendments were hurriedly pushed through by the BJP without proper discussion with the Muslim community or representative organisations. Several of the provisions were discriminatory in nature, he added.

"In particular, the requirement that only individuals practising Islam for five years could create Waqf was a blatant attempt to restrict the rights of minorities. These changes were clearly part of a broader design to stigmatise the Muslim community, deepen communal divisions and open the way for arbitrary takeover of waqf assets.

"The CPI is among the petitioners which have challenged this law before the Court," Kumar said in a statement.

He added that the court has not put the entire Act on hold, and a number of unjust provisions remain operative.

"We hope that the judicial process will eventually lead to the annulment of all objectionable parts of the legislation and ensure that any law relating to religious endowments is evolved in a democratic and transparent manner, with due consultation. Such laws must strengthen, not weaken, the secular fabric of our republic," he said.

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. PTI AO AO KSS KSS