The Supreme Court started hearing pleas questioning the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, with issues raised regarding property categorization and inheritance legislation.
The Supreme Court started hearing a group of petitions on Wednesday, April 16, questioning the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna expressed concerns regarding the categorization of certain properties as Waqf.
We have been informed the Delhi High Court building is located on Waqf land, Oberoi Hotel stands on Waqf land… We are not stating all Waqf-by-user properties are mistakenly registered, but there are genuine areas of concern as well,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna noted.
The bench, which included CJI Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan, directed both parties to discuss two important questions — whether the issue should be handled by the top court or go first to a high court, and what were the central arguments in the petitions.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for the petitioners, started reading out the provisions of the new law in question and stated, “Who is the State to dictate to us how inheritance will occur in my religion?” He contended that according to Islamic law, inheritance occurs only after death, and the government was now trying to interfere before that.
CJI Khanna replied, “But in Hindus, it does happen. So Parliament has passed a law for Muslims. Perhaps it’s not similar to the law for Hindus. Article 26 will not prohibit the enactment of law in this situation. Article 26 is general — and it is secular in the way that it applies to everyone.”
Sibal, however, rebutted, stating, “Inheritance in Islam is after death. They are interfering before that. Another area of disagreement brought up during the hearing was Section 3(C) of the new Act, relating to government property. According to this provision, any government land previously identified or declared as Waqf will not be considered Waqf property after the Act comes into force — a major change in the way such land is classified and disputed.
