Waqf Act Hearing In Supreme Court: CJI Gavai Asks Kapil Sibal To Make 'Glaring Case' For Interim Relief

The Supreme Court resumed hearing pleas challenging the Waqf Amendment Act on Tuesday (20 May), with senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing the petitioners and Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta representing the Centre.

While considering the pleas for interim orders, Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai told Sibal that interim relief can be granted only when a very 'glaring case' is made, otherwise, only the constitutionality of legislation will be discussed.

After this, Sibal argued that 'irreparable injury' would be done if these provisions were activated and claimed that the law violates Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.

Meanwhile, SG Mehta urged the court to restrict its discussion on the three issues raised in previous hearings and asserted, "We had filed our response to these three issues."

The three issues were the clauses regarding 'Waqf by user', the nomination of non-Muslims to Waqf Council and state Waqf Boards and the identification of government land under Waqf. 

However, the discussions included the provisions of laws, rules or amendments made in the years 1913, 1923, 1954, 1984, 1995 and 2013.

Sibal also made a comparison between mosques and temples and said, "People often at the end of life dedicate their properties as Waqf. There is no chadhava like in temples. Mosques and graveyards do not have Rs 2000-Rs 3000 crore corpus." 

The bench of CJI Gavai and Justice AG Masih will resume hearing the case after the lunch break.