The President of the Hindu Sena and a member of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha have approached the Supreme Court through intervention applications in support of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, stating that the amended law is in consonance with the scheme of the Constitution of India.

In their intervention applications—seeking to participate in the hearing of the petitions challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025—Vishnu Gupta, the National President of the Hindu Sena, and Satish Kumar Aggarwal, a member of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, stated that there is no violation of any right of any member of the Muslim community.

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President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, on April 5. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on April 3 and April 4, respectively.

“A perusal of Section 40 of the Waqf Act, 1995, would show that the Waqf board was empowered to collect information regarding any property it had reason to believe was Waqf property, and such property used to be declared as Waqf property. Therefore, under the garb of Section 40, the Waqf board acquired lakhs of acres of land belonging to others in the name of Waqf property. Therefore, the Parliament was compelled to exercise its legislative power to amend the provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995,” the applications have stated.

Stating that no law can be framed on the basis of religious practices with unfettered power to acquire land and property of others, the applications said, “Therefore, the Waqf Act, 1954, and subsequent thereto, the Waqf Act, 1995, are against the very scheme of the Constitution of India. Be that as it may, Parliament has amended the draconian provisions through the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. Therefore, there is no infirmity or illegality in the amendment.”

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice KV Viswanathan, is set to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Waqf Act, 2025, on April 16.

The petitioners challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, include Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Mohammad Jawed, who was also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee that examined the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owais, Aam Aadmi Party MLA in Delhi assembly Amanatullah Khan, the President of the Islamic cleric’s body Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, Kerala Sunni scholars’ body Samastha Kerala Jamiatul Ulama, Social Democratic Party of India, the NGO Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), and others.

The petitioners have challenged the constitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, on the ground that it violates fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 (Right to equality before law), Article 25 (freedom to practise religion), Article 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs), Article 29 (minority rights), and Article 300A (right to property) of the Constitution of India, alleging that the Act is discriminatory and allows unwarranted government interference in Waqf affairs. The matter was mentioned on Monday for an early listing.

In his petition, Congress leader Mohammad Jawed said, “The Act discriminates against the Muslim community by imposing restrictions that are not present in the governance of other religious endowments. For instance, while Hindu and Sikh religious trusts continue to enjoy a degree of self-regulation, the amendments to the Waqf Act, 1995, disproportionately increase state intervention in Waqf affairs. Such differential treatment amounts to a violation of Article 14 in addition to the introduction of arbitrary classifications that lack a reasonable nexus to the objectives sought to be achieved, making it impermissible under the doctrine of manifest arbitrariness.”

Congress leader Mohammad Jawed has termed as “unwarranted interference” the amendment to the composition of the Waqf Board and the Central Waqf Council that mandates the inclusion of non-Muslim members in Waqf administrative bodies. On the other hand, the Hindu religious endowments are exclusively managed by Hindus under various state enactments, the Congress leader said, pointing to the distinction in the management of Muslim endowments and that of the Hindus.

AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, in his petition, has stated that the amended Act “irreversibly dilutes” the statutory protections afforded to Waqfs and their regulatory framework while conferring undue advantage upon other stakeholders and interest groups, undermining years of progress and setting back Waqf management by several decades.

“The Amendment Act also takes away from Waqfs various protections which were accorded to Waqfs and Hindu, Jain, and Sikh religious and charitable endowments alike. This diminishing of the protection given to Waqfs while retaining them for religious and charitable endowments of other religions constitutes hostile discrimination against Muslims and is violative of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion,” the AIMIM Chief said in his petition.

Seeking the striking down of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, Amanatullah Khan said in his petition that the Bill curtails the religious and cultural autonomy of Muslims, enables arbitrary executive interference, and undermines minority rights to manage their religious and charitable institutions.”

The Islamic cleric’s body, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, in its petition, said that the amendments to the Waqf Act were destructive to waqf administration and jurisprudence in India and amounted to an attempt to redefine the very nature of waqfs as they exist in the country.