Pleas against Waqf (Amendment) Act intended to create 'riot-like situation' in India, says BJP

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday criticised several public interest litigations challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act as "vote bank interest litigations".

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that the pleas filed in the Supreme Court by several organisations are "merely an excuse to incite their vote bank and create riot-like situation in the country".

He told reporters that the only people whose interests will be harmed by the new law is the land mafia which has grabbed Waqf properties. "It seems to be less PIL and more vote bank interest litigation."

The organisations behind the legal challenge to the Act, including the Congress, AIMIM, and some Muslim outfits, were also behind the allegation that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will snatch the citizenship of Muslims, Poonawalla alleged.

He said that the new law will ensure social justice and the application of Constitution in managing Waqf properties.

Many Muslim bodies and even Christian organisations have welcomed the amendments to the Waqf Act, he noted, asserting that it is not a "Hindu-Muslim" issue.

The BJP spokesperson said the Congress had used Parliament to overturn a Supreme Court judgment, which had provided alimony to divorced Muslim women in the Shah Bano case in 1985. When Parliament has now passed a law for ensuring justice to the backward and women among Muslims, the Congress is again opposed to it, he added.

Earlier in the day, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan agreed to consider, listing for an urgent hearing, the plea of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and others, including Congress MP Mohammad Jawed and AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan on the issue.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has also moved the top court against the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.