BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has challenged the Waqf Act 1995 by filing public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court on Saturday. His plea will be heard on Tuesday. Upadhyay argues that the Waqf law discriminates against other religions.
BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has challenged the Waqf Act 1995 by filing public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court on Saturday. His plea will be heard on Tuesday. Upadhyay argues that the Waqf law discriminates against other religions. He has raised questions on this law in the petition. Upadhyay has said that the Parliament of the country does not have the right to make Waqf Act 1995 for Waqf property. Parliament cannot lay down any rules and regulations for trusts, trust property, charitable and religious institutions, and institutions beyond the scope of items 10 and 28 in the Third List of the Seventh Schedule.
BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay has demanded from the High Court that no rule, notification, order, or direction under the Waqf Act 1995 should apply to the properties of Hindu or other non-Islamic communities. Upadhyay says that the Waqf Act has given special status to the property of Waqf; on the other hand, the properties of Trust, Math, and Akhara do not get the same status.
BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay has said that the Waqf Board has been given unlimited power to register Waqf property to any property. This leads to discrimination against Hindus and other non-Islamic communities. There is no system to protect Hindu and non-Islamic communities from getting their personal and religious properties included in the Waqf list issued by the Waqf Board.
Ashwini Upadhyay has demanded in the petition that the court should declare that property disputes between two religious communities will be settled only through courts. A quasi-judicial forum cannot settle such disputes. BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay has said that in the last 10 years, Waqf Board has declared Waqf property by encroaching on other properties. According to the Waqf Management System of India's data, until July 2020, a total of 6,59,877 properties, i.e., about eight lakh acres of land, are in the name of Waqf. The Waqf Board has a special right to remove illegal occupations. On the other hand, the managers, sevadars, mahants, and those looking after the management and administration of religious properties like trusts, monasteries, temples, akhadas etc., have not got such rights and powers.