Can govt regulate waqf properties?
Both sects of Muslims — Sunni and Shia — have approached the Supreme Court raising an important religious issue — whether the government can make laws for regulating waqf properties, which according to the tenets of Islam are dedicated to the God.
The important issue has arisen form a series of laws and regulations passed by the Maharashtra government, including the Waqf Act of 1995, to regulate the waqf properties and certain order passed by the Bombay high court on the subsequent litigations arising out of it.
The main challenges in the bunch of petitions before the apex court were whether the state government’s action creating the waqf board under the 1995 Act to regulate waqf properties was constitutionally valid, especially when the board is created by persons belonging to the other sects and what will be the “impact” of it on those professing Islam. Besides, they challenged the 2002 notification issued by Maharashtra’s charity commissioner stating that in view of the implementation of Waqf Act all waqf properties registered earlier as under the Public Trust Act would be governed by the Waqf Act.
Taking into account the pertinent question raised by various Muslim organisations, a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and J. Chelameswar in an order passed on Friday last directed Maharashtra government and other concerned agencies to maintain the status quo on all waqf properties and restrained the parties from alienating them in any way.
“There is a vast difference between Muslim waqfs and trust created by Muslims. The basic difference is that waqf properties are dedicated to the God and the ‘wakif’ or the dedicator of the property, does not retain any title over the property after dedicating it to the God,” the apex court observed, while passing the status quo order.
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