Welcome SC stay on Waqf Act provisions, says CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court order staying controversial provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar said the court’s intervention confirms what his party has consistently argued that the amendments were hurriedly pushed through by the BJP without proper discussion with the Muslim community or representative organisations, and that several of the provisions were discriminatory in nature.

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“In particular, the requirement that only individuals practising Islam for ve 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,” Kumar said.

Noting that the CPI was among the petitioners who have challenged this law before the Court, Kumar said that “A number of unjust provisions remain operative, while only those clauses deemed patently unconstitutional have been stayed.”

Earlier today, the Supreme Court had stayed certain provisions of the Waqf Amendment Act but refused to suspend the entire act.

Kumar expressed 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 asserted.

He also recalled that the CPI had strongly opposed these legislations inside Parliament and mobilised protests outside as well, warning that they were designed to target minorities and undermine their rights.

He further reaffirmed the party’s stand that the rights of religious minorities must be fully protected in a plural and secular democracy like India.