About 72 petitions, including those by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Anwar Basha former chairman Karnataka State Board of AUQAF represented by advocate Tariq Ahmed, Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed, were filed against the law.While appointing three lawyers as the nodal counsel, the bench asked the advocates to decide among themselves who was going to argue.The petitioners were allowed to file their rejoinders to the Centre’s reply within five days of the service of the government’s response.”We clarify that the next hearing (May 5) will be for the preliminary objections and for an interim order,” the bench said.The Centre, on April 17, assured the bench that it will neither denotify waqf properties, including “waqf by user”, nor make any appointments to the central waqf council and boards till May 5.The assurance of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta came when he informed the bench headed by the CJI that the waqf law was passed by Parliament with “due deliberations” and it should not be stayed without hearing the government.Later, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs filed a preliminary 1,332-page affidavit defending the amended Waqf Act and opposed any “blanket stay” by the court on a “law having presumption of constitutionality passed by Parliament”.
Source link
