SC to hear transfer petition relating to Waqf Act on October 10

New Delhi [India], September 19 : The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will hear on October 10 the plea seeking transfer of the petition related to the Waqf Act from the Delhi High Court to the top court.
A bench of justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy listed the matter for hearing on October 10.
During the hearing, Justice Joseph said that he feels pained that the petitioner has put it down to religion and they should talk beyond that.
The court also raised questions that if the Waqf Act is struck down, waqfs will have a free run and the one who will have the last laugh will be the encroacher.
Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the petitioner, said that he will get back to the queries raised by the bench.
The bench was hearing a petition seeking the transfer of petitions challenging the Waqf Act from Delhi High Courts to the Supreme Court.
The petitioner, in its plea, said that advocate Ashwini Upadhyay sought transfer from Delhi High Court to the Supreme Court as it said 55 similar connected matters are likely to be listed for final hearing. Therefore, in order to avoid multiplicity of litigations and conflicting views on the interpretation of Articles 14-15, 25-26 and 29-30, the Court may be pleased to transfer from Delhi High Court and decide the constitutional validity of the Waqf Act 1995.
"The Act is made under the garb of managing waqf properties but there are no similar laws for followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Bahaism, Zoroastrianism & Christianity. Hence, it is against the secularism, unity and integrity of the nation. The Waqf is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. However, if the Act is enacted to secure fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 25-26, then it must be in consonance with Articles 14-15," the plea said.
"If the Act is enacted under Entry-10 and Entry-28 of List-3 of Schedule-7, then it must be gender-neutral and religion-neutral. Likewise, if the impugned Act has been made to protect the rights guaranteed under Articles 29-30 then it has to cover all minorities i.e, followers of Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Bahaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and not only Islam," the petition said.
"The Waqf Board which has Muslim MLA, Muslim MP, Muslim IAS Officer, Muslim Town Planner, Muslim Advocate, Muslim Scholar, Mutawallis; they are paid from the public exchequer, though Centre and States don't collect even one rupee from any Mosque, Mazar and Dargah," the petition said.
"On the other hand, the Centre and States collect around one lac crore rupees from four lac temples but there are no similar provisions for Hindus. Thus, the Act offends Article 27 also," the petition read.