New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) The Centre on Friday defended in the Supreme Court a provision of the amended law on "waqf by user" properties and said any interference would create a "legislative regime by a judicial order".

Waqf by user refers to a practice where a property is recognised as a religious or charitable endowment (waqf) based on its long-term, uninterrupted use for such purposes, even if there isn't a formal, written declaration of waqf by the owner.

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On April 17, a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna raised objections to certain provisions of the law including the one related to denotification of "waqf-by-user" properties which are not registered till April 8.

The CJI said some provisions could have "grave ramifications", particularly those potentially undermining judicially recognised waqf properties and said they "should not be de-notified".

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In a 1,332-page preliminary counter affidavit, the Centre's Ministry of Minority Affairs referred to the provisions of old waqf laws and said the registration of waqf properties, including the waqf-by-user has been mandatory since 1923.

“If the effect of the section saving only registered ‘waqf by user' is interfered with either directly or indirectly by any interim order, it will not only defeat the object and provision itself, it will result in the following anomalies which the order of any court cannot lead to...it will amount to creation of legislative regime by judicial order (and that too an interim order) wherein Parliament has by law, consciously taken it away,” it said.

Any interim order will not only cause public mischief but also harm Muslims, it added.

“Despite there being a regime of mandatory registration of all kinds of waqf including ‘waqf by user' making registration mandatory almost since a century, i.e., since 1923, individuals or organisations used to claim private lands and government lands as waqf including under ‘waqf by user' which not only lead to deprivation of valuable property rights of individual citizens but similarly unauthorised claims over public properties,” the Centre argued.

The ministry went on, "Waqf by user provision was also criticised by the stakeholders since it allowed properties belonging to the government to be wrongfully claimed as waqf."

There has been a clear and mandatory legislative regime, which has sought to enforce and implement registration requirements on all kinds of waqfs since at least 1923, it added.

The Centre termed the submissions of petitioners on the issue as “unsustainable and purposefully misleading” as "waqf by user" which are registered would have no impact and continue to operate.

The affidavit said it was not open for anyone to rationally, logically, honestly and statutorily say that we could not get "waqf by user" registered because we did not have waqf deed since it never been requirement for registration of "waqf by user".

The only mandatory requirement for being protected under the proviso is that such "waqf by user" should be registered as on April 8, 2025 since the registration has always been mandatory as per the statute governing waqfs since last 100 years, it added.

“Those, who deliberately evaded or avoided to get ‘waqf by user' registered (despite non-registration being punitive under the statute) cannot claim the benefits of the proviso,” the Centre said.

Therefore, the Centre said, it is "too late in the day for anyone to claim" that though it calls itself a genuine waqf, it is still not registered.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)