November 4 is the new date for the Waqf Amendment Act Challenge, fixed after petitioners told the Supreme Court that the status of waqf properties is changing while the law is in operation.
New Delhi: Listing the Waqf Amendment Act Challenge for hearing on November 4, the Supreme Court on Thursday, October 15, put the batch of petitions on the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, along with pleas for further interim relief, on its calendar [In Re: The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025].
The matter was mentioned briefly before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, with Senior Advocate Nizam Pasha appearing for the petitioners.
The only steps taken on Thursday
Several intervention applications have been filed in the case, the Bench noted. It allowed one of them, by Shambir Singh, and tagged it with the main batch. Beyond fixing the date, no other direction was recorded. The Centre’s response to what the petitioners said was not available at the time of writing.
Why the petitioners wanted a date
Pasha asked for a date to be fixed on the footing that the Act’s continued operation was having serious consequences. As the petitioners put it, the Limitation Act, 1963 would now apply to waqf properties, so properties not defined within that period would be affected at once, and waqf by user, which the amended law no longer recognises, is being affected too.
He added that many waqfs are seeing their status altered because oral waqfs and waqf by user are no longer recognised, and that such a change may be permanent and irreversible. Even in disputes that were already pending, he argued, the character of a property may change because the earlier protection no longer exists. These are the petitioners’ contentions; the Court has recorded no finding on them.
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From the 2025 Bill to a new Bench
Parliament passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill on April 3 and 4, 2025, and the President assented on April 5. Petitions followed in the Supreme Court from, among others, Amanatullah Khan, Asaduddin Owaisi and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. When the Court took up the matter on April 17, 2025, the Centre assured it that waqf by user and waqf by deed properties would not be denotified while the proceedings were pending. After hearings on May 20 to 22, 2025, the Court reserved its order on interim relief.
On September 15, 2025, a Bench led by then Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, with Justice Augustine George Masih, declined to stay the Act as a whole, holding that every law enjoys a presumption of constitutionality. It did stay the clause requiring a person to be a practising Muslim for five years before creating a waqf until State rules are framed, and the provision allowing a government officer to decide whether waqf property encroaches on government land.
Non-Muslim members were capped at four in the Central Waqf Council and three in State Waqf Boards. The Court called its observations prima facie and left the petitioners free to press other grounds. The Chief Justice who heard that round has since demitted office, and the batch now goes before a Bench led by CJI Surya Kant.
Case Title: In Re: The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, W.P.(C) No. 276/2025 and connected matters
Bench: CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi
Date of Hearing: October 15, 2026
Appearances: Senior Advocate Nizam Pasha for the petitioners