Waqf Amendment Act: Supreme Court Posts Hearing to 21 January 2027

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, posted the batch of petitions challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 to 21 January 2027 and ordered all pleadings to be completed by 31 December 2026. A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale passed the directions in New Delhi, according to a Press Trust of India report. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Centre, and a nodal counsel has been appointed for the petitioners.

Two Weeks to File Writ Petitions

Applicants whose interlocutory applications have been allowed must now file writ petitions within two weeks. The nodal counsel has to compile the judgments the petitioners rely on, and the Additional Solicitor General must respond to the written submissions. “The pleadings shall be completed by December 31, 2026,” the bench said.

The Centre argued that the arrangement from an April 17, 2025 order should stay. That order limited the case to five lead petitions to keep the volume manageable. Since then, 135 other petitions have been converted into interlocutory applications.

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What the Court Has Already Stayed

On 15 September 2025 the court refused to stay the whole Act, citing the presumption of constitutionality. It did stay three provisions: the clause requiring a person to have practised Islam for five years before creating a waqf, until states frame rules to determine this; the collector’s power to decide the status of waqf properties; and the clause under which a property would not count as waqf until a designated officer submitted a report.

The court also capped non-Muslim members at four of the 20 on the Central Waqf Council and three of the 11 on state waqf boards. Those interim orders continue until the final hearing.

Final Hearing Not Before January

With the next date fixed for 21 January 2027, no ruling on the Act’s validity can come before then. The stayed provisions stay suspended in the meantime. The bench has not said how many days it will set aside for the final hearing.

More court coverage is on our Daily Updates page.

Source: Based on reporting by Business Standard (PTI).

Image: Supreme Court of India / Wikimedia Commons.