A Kerala-based Sree Narayana organisation, the Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust, has approached the Supreme Court to challenge the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, arguing that the legislation threatens the very survival of the Muslim community in India.
“Trust cannot remain a passive observer to the devastating impact that the impugned Act, in its entirety, poses to the Muslim community in India and to the broader cause of social justice in our country,” they said.
The Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust, founded in 2023 to promote the teachings and values of the revered sage and philosopher Sree Narayana Guru, has sought to intervene in the ongoing batch of petitions challenging the provisions of the amended Waqf Act.
Citing the Guru’s emphasis on the interconnectedness of all communities and the collective well-being of society, the Trust told the Supreme Court, “Given the teaching of Sree Narayana Guru about the inter-dependent nature of the well-being of all persons and communities, the ‘Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust’ cannot be an idle spectator to the devastating impact of the impugned Act taken as a whole on the Muslim community of India and to social justice in our country.”
As the Supreme Court has barred the filing of fresh petitions in the matter, directing those wishing to challenge the law to file intervention applications instead, the Sree Narayana Manava Dharmam Trust has moved an intervention application.
“The impugned Act explicitly but erroneously treats the Waqf mechanism as a non-religious institution, thus deleting in its entirety the body of Islamic law as the basic governing law of Waqf, replacing Islamic law with the law laid down by the Impugned Act,” said the application.
Advocate Dr. Mohan Gopal, who is also the chairman of the Trust, will represent the Trust in the Supreme Court.
Mohan Gopal, a veteran social justice activist, is also a former Director of the National Judicial Academy of the Supreme Court of India and a former Director (Vice-Chancellor) of the National Law School of India, Bengaluru.
“It is a violation of religious freedom,” he alleged.
They stated that the law imposes “an unconstitutional, sui generis, state-designed and state-imposed scheme” on the entire Muslim community of the country for controlling charitable donations made by Muslims.
“The Impugned Act is ultra vires because the Parliament has no power to impose such a scheme on any section of the people and is therefore a fraud on the Constitution. This sui generis state-designed and state-imposed scheme violates the constitutional rights of the Muslim community under Articles 21, 25, 26 and 29(1),” read the plea.
It has also been argued that the Muslim community will be left without the economic and financial wherewithal to sustain the practice of their religion as a result of the government takeover of the Waqf mechanism.
“The Impugned Act thus threatens the very existence of the Muslim community in India,” the plea states, “which depends for its survival on the Waqf mechanism.”
It further adds that the Waqf system “has been for centuries, and continues to be, the most important source of economic and financial resources essential for the practice and survival of Islam in India.”
“As the Impugned Act will liquidate the economic and financial foundations of the Muslim community,” the plea said.
The Supreme Court set May 5 to hear pleas against the validity of the new Waqf law.
Over 70 petitions have been filed contesting the 2025 Act, along with one petition challenging the original Waqf Act of 1995.
The petitions, filed by political parties such as the Congress, AIMIM, IUML, DMK, CPI, CPI(M), Aam Aadmi Party, YSRCP, and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief, actor Vijay, as well as organizations like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, and the APCR, challenge the constitutional validity of the 2025 amendment.
 Act, 2025, arguing that the legislation threatens the very survival of the Muslim community in India.){kind=link}