Allahabad High Court seeks response from Attorney General, Advocate General on plea challenging Waqf Act,1995

The Allahabad High Court last week issued notice to Attorney General for India R Venkataramani and Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh, Ajay Kumar Mishra in a plea challenging constitutionality of the Waqf Act, 1995 [Ashish Tewari v UOI]..The order passed by a Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice JJ Munir stated,"As validity of an enactment of the parliament is under challenge, let notice be issued to Attorney General of India, Advocate General of U.P. and the respondent no. 3 for December 15, 2022."The matter will be heard next on December 15. .The plea by petitioner Ashish Tewari, sought directions to declare any notification, order, decision or rule issued under the Waqf Act to be non-applicable to the properties belonging to Hindus or members belonging to non-Islamic communities.The plea also sought quashing of certain provisions of Waqf Act as being violative of Articles 14, 15, 25, 26, 27 and 300-A of the Constitution.."In the impugned Act there is no safeguard for Hindus and non-Islamic communities to save their religious and private properties from being included in the list of Waqf issued by the Government or by the Waqf Boards and Hindu and other religious communities are being discriminated and the impugned provisions violate Articles 14, 15, 25, 27 and 300-A of the Constitution of India. The provisions contained in Sections 4, 5, 36 and 40 of the Waqf Act, 1995 are not in conformity with the theme underlying Article 14 of the Constitution of India as no proper safeguard has been provided against the inclusion of any property as waqf property," the petition said..The petitioner further contended that provisions are not in consonance with the principles of natural justice, as no sufficient provision has been made to give opportunity of being heard to the affected persons who want to oppose the inclusion of the property as Waqf Property.Further, referring to Section 40, a provision that authorizes the Waqf Boards to make an enquiry in respect of any land to find out as to whether the property is Waqf property or not, the petitioner submitted, "In case Waqf Board has reason to believe that any property of Trust or Society is a Waqf property it may call upon the Trust or Society to show cause as to why such property be not registered as Waqf property. The decision of the Board is final subject to any order passed by Tribunal. Thus the fate of properties of Trust or Societies are subject to the will of the Board and in other words they have been placed as Subordinates to Waqf Boards, which is absolutely in violation of the provisions contained in Article 14 15, 26 and 300-A of the Constitution of India.".The petitioner was represented by advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Prabhash Pandey while Deputy Solicitor General Gyan Prakash and advocate NC Gupta represented the respondent..[Read Order]