On Tuesday, October 18, 2022, the Allahabad High Court issued notice to the Attorney General of India and the Advocate General in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition which questioned the constitutional validity of the Waqf Act, 1995. The matter has been scheduled as fresh petition on December 15, 2022.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice J. J. Munir is handling a PIL petition filed by Ashish Tewari and others asking the court to rule that any notification, order, decision, or rule issued under the Waqf Act will not apply to properties owned by Hindus or people who are a part of non-Islamic communities. In addition, the petition calls for the revocation of specific Waqf Act provisions that it claims to violate Articles 14, 15, 25, 26, and 300-A of the Constitution.

The argument in the petition is that certain provisions (which are being challenged) give Waqf properties a special status while denying Trusts, Mutts, Akharas, and Societies the same status. As a result, the petition claims, they give Waqf Boards the unrestricted and unchecked authority to register any property as Waqf property.

The petition further states that "In the impugned Act there is no safeguard for Hindus and non-Islamic communities to save their religious and private properties from being included in the list of Waqf issued by the Government or by the Waqf Boards and Hindu, and therefore, other religious communities are being discriminated and the impugned provisions violate Articles 14,15,25,27 and 300 A of the Constitution of India,"

The petition also states that Section 40, which gives the Waqf Boards the authority to investigate any land to determine whether it is Waqf property or not, the Waqf Board may request that any Trust or Society provide justification for why the property should not be registered as Waqf property if it has reason to believe that the property is a Waqf property. The Board's judgement is final and is subject to any orders issued by the Tribunal.

Case Details:-

PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 1922 of 2022

Ashish Tewari and others

Vs.

Union of India and others