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The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference will move the Supreme Court to file a writ petition against the Waqf Amendment Act "as soon as possible", party's chief spokesperson and legislator Tanvir Sadiq said on Wednesday, 9 April. Meanwhile, the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu governments have stated their rejection of the new Act, while in Kerala, Left organisations are calling for a joint bipartisan statement from the state assembly against its implementation. Sadiq, the MLA from the Zadibal constituency of Srinagar, said the NC believes that the Act represents a constitutionally “alarming interference” in the religious affairs of the Muslim community.
“On the direction of President Farooq Abdullah, the National Conference will file a writ petition in the Supreme Court. This legal battle will now be fought there,” Sadiq told reporters outside J&K assembly after the House was adjourned sine die late in the afternoon on Wednesday. (It was in uproar again on Thursday, 10 April, too.
) The last several days of the budget session were disrupted by ruling NC members and their alliance partners after Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather disallowed an adjournment motion to discuss the contentious Waqf Amendment Act on Monday, 7 April, when the House met after a recess of 12 days. Sadiq said the Act "violates" fundamental constitutional protections under Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, 29 and 300A. "It is a direct attack on the religious freedom, equality, and property rights of Muslims across the country,” the NC leader said.
He said independent MLA and former judge Muzaffar Iqbal, who is supporting the NC-led government, will file the petition in the apex court “as soon as possible” along with lawyers-turned-legislators including Hilal Akbar Lone, Arjun Singh and Riyaz Ahmad Khan. “Our intention to knock on the door of the Supreme Court is that it is very important to fight this big battle there. We stand with every Muslim who was hurt by this new law and we are going to represent them,” Sadiq, flanked by party colleagues and the former judge, said.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha last week after marathon debates in both Houses of Parliament. President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Bill on 5 April. More than 10 petitions, including those by politicians and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act.
The DMK , Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi , RJD MPs Manoj Jha and Faiyaz Ahmad, and AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan have already approached the apex court against the Act. Today, 10 April, Thursday, TMC’s Mahua Moitra has followed suit . While in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee declared that she would not implement the act in her state, the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution demanding that the Centre roll back the Waqf (Amendment) Bill even before it was passed by Parliament.
Referring to the past three days of disruption in the J&K House, Sadiq said they wanted to convey to the rest of the country that the ruling alliance in J&K is not in favour of the Waqf Amendment Act and they are thankful to the speaker for keeping the “sense of the House” on record. “If more than 300 MPs in the country voted against it, it means that there is a vertical division on the Act,” he said, adding after registering the anger in the assembly, the party has decided to take this battle forward. However, he said, many important private members' resolutions and bills including three resolutions seeking restoration of statehood got lapsed in the chaos.
“The statehood resolutions were equally important but the PDP, BJP and PC (Peoples Conference) deliberately created the din to sideline such important resolutions. We pledge that the statehood resolutions will be taken up in the next (assembly) session. We will fight for statehood in every platform and will not stop till its restoration,” the NC leader said.
Also Read: Give timeline for statehood restoration to J&K: Congress to Amit Shah Meanwhile, Muslim organisations in Kerala have called on the state's Left government and opposition parties to pass a joint resolution saying the controversial Waqf Amendment Act will not be implemented in the state. They wanted the state to take a cue from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal . " [M.
K.] Stalin has already made an announcement, and their assembly has passed a resolution against the implementation of the Waqf (Amendment) Act. We demand that the Kerala government should also pass such a resolution," Thodiyur Muhammed Kunji Moulavi, general secretary of the South Kerala Jamiatul Ulama, told PTI on Thursday, 10 April.
Several other Muslim organisations, which jointly organised a march to the Raj Bhavan in Kerala on Thursday, 10 April, in protest against the recently passed legislation, have raised the same demand. The Muslim leaders described the amendment as an attempt to "eradicate Muslims from the country" and to seize all their properties, including waqf assets, which Muslim families have been donating for the benefit of the poor in the country for generations. Incidentally, reports from Bhopal and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh point to an almost institutionalised land grab from the state waqf board, giving credence to the Opposition allegations that the whole point of the Waqf Act was capturing space and sowing discord.
Also Read: The waqf dilemma: On record or off the record "Until the death of the last Muslim in this country, we will not allow this anti-democratic law to be implemented. Our Raj Bhavan march is just the beginning, and we may even organise a massive protest rally to Parliament," said Kadakkal Abdul Azeez Moulavi, president of the Kerala Muslim Jamaath Federation. He said that, along with the Muslims in this country, all those who believe in secularism and democracy would join hands to fight against the newly amended Waqf Act.
The Muslim associations have threatened to organise larger protests in the coming days and expressed hope that the Supreme Court will, by then, take a democratic decision against the amendments. CPI national executive member and former MP, Panniyan Raveendran, who also participated in the programme, said that all those who oppose the religious polarisation of the BJP/RSS would join hands with their Muslim brethren to fight against such discrimination. "We know how we live and the love we have for each other.
The BJP or RSS do not even deserve to utter the name of Hindu. This is an organised attempt to loot properties for their corporate friends. After targeting Muslims, they are now targeting Christians," Raveendran claimed.
His reference was likely to a story run — and then redacted — by the RSS mouthpiece Organiser , touting a comparison of land ownership by the Catholic Church and Muslim waqf boards. The Church laughed at it, but it certainly seemed to support the apprehensions that Christians would be the next minority whose personal laws would need to be ‘regularised’ by the NDA and BJP governments. The Muslim organisations stated that they would continue their peaceful protests against the amendments and would also seek legal remedies against the implementation of an anti-democratic law.
The Waqf (Amendment) Act, which was passed by Parliament last week, has come into force from 8 April 2025. While the BJP-led NDA had rallied in support of the bill, the Opposition INDIA bloc united in opposing it. With PTI inputs Follow us on: Facebook , Twitter , Google News , Instagram Join our official telegram channel ( @nationalherald ) and stay updated with the latest headlines.
