Earlier this month, the Supreme Court (SC) pronounced an interim order on the pleas to stay provisions of the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025 (Waqf Act). The crux of the order lies in the Court’s navigation of the thin line between the strong presumption of legality of the law passed by Parliament and the need to put certain safeguards in place through rules to be framed by the state governments. While there has been much commentary on the legality of the Waqf Act, little attention has been drawn to the volatile history of reforming Muslim personal law in India, and how it is foundational to controversies in the present waqf reforms.
A silver lining has been that no one, per se, questioned the need for reforms in the waqfs. Rather, the contentions are rooted in the nature and extent of the changes. Even the reforms’ most vociferous critics accept that there is a need to correct the flaws in waqf administration and management. In fact, the waqf, as a unit of Muslim personal law, has seen the largest number of changes post-Independence — through acts and amendments in 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1984, 1995 and 2013. Even the Sachar Committee Report (2006) highlighted inefficiencies in waqf management and suggested reforms, including better financial practices, overhaul of dispute settlement mechanisms and increased representation.
Historically, reforming Muslim personal laws has been challenging. The reason is that the personal laws are a distinct feature of the Indian system where contesting social, legal, cultural and heritage practices negotiate with each other. This often involves compromise between binaries such as “tradition vs modernity”, “scriptures vs legislation” and “customs vs laws”. Such binaries have been on display in virtually all past reform measures aimed at removing gender-discriminatory laws, such as women’s right to maintenance and the abolition of triple talaq. Hence, the controversies surrounding the reform of waqfs represent a continuity and not a break from the past. In fact, on the emotive index, the issue of waqf is perhaps even more sensitive than past issues of Muslim personal law, as it concerns the entire community rather than a sub-group.
Moreover, state-driven legal initiatives to reform personal laws have been rather rare. Wherever such initiatives have borne fruit, the demand emerged from within the community. In fact, litigation in the constitutional courts on the issues of maintenance and triple talaq illustrates that the functioning of the in-house dispute settlement mechanisms within the Muslim community has fallen short.
A key reason Indian Muslims have resisted reforms is that reformatory aspects of Muslim law have been underemphasised in socio-cultural practices. The strength of Islamic jurisprudence lies in strong concepts such as ijtihad — evolution and reasoning. As an example, for many kinds of theft, the Islamic punishment is cutting off hands. But few Muslim countries apply such a punishment. Does that mean all these Muslim countries have abandoned the Quran? No, they have used ijtihad to evolve better means of deterrence and punishment.
It is in this backdrop of the vexed socio-cultural history of Muslim personal law reforms that the SC should examine the constitutional challenge. The involvement of the state in waqf administration should, in itself, not be a reason for anxiety. In several Muslim nations — such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Bangladesh and Turkey — waqf properties are generally regulated by the institutions set up by the government. The state and administrative authorities need to ensure that reforms are brought into effect in a way that allays the anxieties of ordinary Muslims.
The proposed reforms also contemplate opening the doors for participation to underrepresented Muslim groups, including women and Pasmandas. The waqf reforms will be keenly watched to see whether they foster an internal sociological and gender realignment, and if they can reshape the political interaction of these Muslim groups with the BJP.
The writer is a former vice-chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University, and nominated Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council
