Karnataka high court pulls up state govt for permitting protest against waqf law
Justice M Nagaprasanna on Thursday questioned how the state could allow demonstrations on an issue currently under the Supreme Court’s consideration
The Karnataka high court has pulled up the state government for permitting a protest against the new law regulating and managing Islamic charitable endowments or waqf, even as the Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging its constitutional validity. It said the government had no right to sanction the protest when the issue is sub judice.
Justice M Nagaprasanna on Thursday questioned how the state could allow demonstrations on an issue currently under the Supreme Court’s consideration. “What protest are you permitting now when the apex court is hearing the matter?”
The high court said the top court has expressed displeasure at similar protests, including in West Bengal’s communal violence-hit Murshidabad. “Being a state, you should not have permitted any protests on the issue when the matter is sub judice,” the high court said as it heard Mangaluru resident A Rajesh’s petition over an April 15 circular asking motorists to avoid certain routes because of a demonstration against the amended waqf law.
Senior advocate DR Ravi Shankar, who appeared for Rajesh, told the court the circular aggrieved his client
The state’s counsel told the court that police issued a traffic advisory and suggested alternate routes for motorists to ensure “free flow of traffic.”
The high court refused to accept the submission and said that the core issue was not traffic inconvenience to motorists but how the state permitted such protests in the first place.
“The state should bear in mind that the Supreme Court is seized of the matter qua the amendments to the Waqf Act and protests of this kind at this juncture should not be permitted,” the high court said.
It asked the state government if the permission for the protest was as per the law, whether it was restricted to a designated area, and whether traffic movement was obstructed. The court will hear the matter next on April 23.
Members of Parliament, Muslim scholars, religious bodies, and political parties are among the petitioners who have challenged the law in the Supreme Court, arguing it breaches the Constitution’s articles 25 and 26 related to the fundamental right to freedom of religion.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court questioned aspects of the new law, including the status of “waqf by user” properties declared so under earlier court orders, the majority presence of non-Muslim members in the Waqf Council and boards, and disallowing a property from operating as a waqf if it is disputed as a government plot.
A waqf is a Muslim religious endowment usually in the form of landed property for charity and community welfare. The new law implemented major changes in the regulation and governance of India’s waqf boards, scrapping the “waqf by user” provision, where a property is acknowledged as such because it has been used for religious activities for some time, despite there being no official declaration or registration. It provided for government officials to be members of waqf bodies.
The amended law gives overriding power to senior officials to determine if a government property belongs to a waqf. It allows only a person “showing or demonstrating that he is practising Islam for at least five years” to donate properties to waqf.
The court on Wednesday referred to properties declared waqf centuries ago, and which continued to remain so by user until the law came into effect. It underlined that the past cannot be rewritten. “A property declared as waqf some 100 or 200 years ago, suddenly you turn around and say it cannot be waqf.” The court said it would be difficult to register properties built several centuries ago.
