Supreme Court sets aside Kerala High Court directive placing Waqf Board under State supervision

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deleted a Kerala High Court direction placing the Kerala Waqf Board under the supervision of a joint secretary of the State dealing with waqf matters [The Kerala State Waqf Board and others v. Shone George and others].

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi passed the order while hearing an appeal filed by the Kerala Waqf Board challenging the High Court order.

“The further direction issued by the High Court to the effect that, for the time being, the Board shall function under the supervision of the Joint Secretary to the State government dealing with waqf matters, is deleted. However, the Joint Secretary may continue to function as a member of the Board, though not in that supervisory capacity," the Supreme Court said.

The Kerala Waqf Board moved the apex court challenging a July 15 order of the High Court, which had restrained the Waqf Board from taking any major decisions, incurring capital expenditure or making policy decisions, and which had placed its functioning under the supervision of a joint secretary of State.

The High Court had passed the interim order while considering Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions challenging the constitution of the present board.

These petitions included those by the State Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shone George, a Christian trust named the Assembly of Christian Trust Services (ACTS) and one by retired Indian Army Force Junior Warrant officer and former Kerala government under secretary Stalin VM.

The petitioners contended that since the State Waqf Board has not yet appointed two non-Muslim members as required under the 2025 Waqf Amendment Act, its functioning was unconstitutional.

On July 15, the High Court observed that the board's existing composition prima facie appeared to be contrary to Section 14 of the 2025 Waqf Amendment Act, which mandates the inclusion of at least two non-Muslim members in every State Waqf Board.

Therefore, it directed the board not to take any major decision for now and ordered that its functioning should be supervised by the State's joint secretary until the High Court gives its final verdict on the PIL petitions.

This interim order was challenged by the Waqf Board before the top court.

In today’s hearing, Justice Bagchi questioned why the Board's functioning should be curtailed solely because of the dispute over the failure to appoint non-Muslim members, as required by the amended Waqf Act. 

“Why should the board be halted just because of this aspect only?” Justice Bagchi asked.

Representing the Waqf Board, Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi added,

“Members of the Waqf Board were not even served with the copy (of the petition) and this extraordinary order was passed.”

The State, represented by Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, meanwhile, told the Bench that the High Court is slated to hear the matter tomorrow.

The Court proceeded to dispose of the Waqf Board's appeal after directing the High Court to decide the matter promptly.

However, it deleted a part of the High Court's interim order that had placed the Waqf board under the supervision of the State's joint secretary.

"There is no necessity to retain the last part of paragraph 6 of the impugned order (directing supervision of joint secretary)," the top court opined.

The Court added,

"Since the matter is already coming up for hearing before the High Court, we request the High Court to decide the matter expeditiously after affording all parties a fair opportunity to file their claims, counterclaims and to be heard. The appeal stands disposed of in the above terms."

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