NEW DELHI: Underscoring the “presumption of constitutionality in favour of law”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said petitioners challenging the waqf law needed a “strong and glaring” case for interim relief.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih commenced the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the validity of Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 for passing interim orders on three issues, including the power to denotify properties declared as “waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed”.
“There is a presumption of constitutionality in favour of every statute. For interim relief, you have to make out a very strong and glaring case. Otherwise, presumption of constitutionality will be there,” the CJI said when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, leading the charge against the legislation, began his submissions.
Sibal described the law as a “complete departure from historical legal and constitutional principles” and a means to “capture waqf through a non-judicial process”.
Centre’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had urged the bench to confine the hearing on pleas to three issues.
