The Constitutional Storm Around The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025
- IJLLR Journal
- May 8
- 1 min read
Ayoushi Jain & Rishabh Dwivedi, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies.
ABSTRACT
‘Waqf’ is a religious and philanthropic institution in Islam, created for public welfare and community development, forming a significant part of religious endowments and is governed by statutory laws. However, over time the waqf administration has faced serious challenges, such as mismanagement, lack of transparency, unchecked powers of the Waqf Boards, and disputed claims over public and private land, which has raised serious concerns about governance, accountability, and the impact of waqf laws on property rights.
Against this backdrop, the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 was promulgated with the stated purpose of reforming waqf governance and improving regulatory oversight. This paper undertakes a doctrinal, historical and analytical legal study to examine whether the recent legal reforms represent a constitutionally permissible regulation of the secular aspects of religion or whether they amount to an unconstitutional overreach infringing the fundamental rights. The paper also includes a comparative study of laws governing similar religious institutions. The study analyses the idea of waqf, the evolution of waqf legislation in India, the need for regulation, the key characteristics of the amended Act, constitutional analysis and the aftermath of the Act.
