Waqf Act stands on firm constitutional ground

THE Centre on Friday filed its reply in the Supreme Court, defending the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025 as a valid, lawful exercise of legislative power and requesting the dismissal of petitions challenging its constitutional validity.

- SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi

"It is a settled position in law that the constitutional courts would not stay a statutory provision, either directly or indirectly, and will decide the matter finally," said the Centre.

A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan, is scheduled to hear the pleas challenging the Act on May 5.

The Centre said that shockingly, after 2013, over 20 lakh hectares (precisely 20,92,072.536) of waqf land were added.