NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday defended the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 in the Supreme Court and said though waqf was an Islamic concept, it was not an essential part of Islam.
Arguing before Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “Waqf is an Islamic concept. But it is not an essential part of Islam.. Waqf is nothing but just charity in Islam.” “Charity is recognised in every religion, and it cannot be regarded as an essential tenet of any religion,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Mehta asserted nobody could claim right over public land by using waqf by user principle which was a statutory right and the law could take it away.
“Waqf by user” refers to a concept where a property is recognised as waqf based on its long-term use for religious or charitable purposes, even without formal documentation.
Responding to the challenge against the validity of the 2025 law, Mehta argued the amended law dealt with the secular aspects of waqf and activities that were non-essential to Islam.
Mehta said the “waqf by user” concept did not permit “wholesale takeover of waqf properties” by the state as alleged.
“Waqf by user is not a fundamental right, it is a creature of statute, and what the legislature creates, it can also take away,” he said.
Any stay of the provision on abolition of unregistered “waqf by user” properties would defeat the purpose of the law which has been enacted to remedy the mischief like usurpation of government land, Mehta added.
“The Centre is the custodian of properties on behalf of 14 crore citizens,” he said, “and nobody has the right over government land.”
Mehta said, “There is a Supreme Court judgment which says the government can save the property if it belongs to the government and has been declared as waqf.”
Contesting the argument of government officers arbitrarily claiming land as government property from now on and override waqf status, he called it “misleading and false.”
On the point of an officer above the rank of a district collector deciding the dispute on the claim over an alleged waqf property, he said officer wouldn’t finally determine the property’s ownership.
Mehta said the eviction or takeover of property could only occur after due process through the Waqf Tribunal proceedings (under Section 83) and subsequent appeals.
The possession would continue with the waqf until the issue was fully adjudicated, he said.
