Congress says Supreme Court’s observation on Waqf echoes concerns raised by INDIA bloc

Senior Congress Leader K.C. Venugopal.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Welcoming the Supreme Court’s interim order on the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025, the Congress on Thursday (April 17, 2025) said the party is opposing the amended law not for the sake of any particular community but to safeguard constitutional principles.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said the top court’s observations on the Waqf Act have brought into focus “the very apprehensions raised by the INDIA [Indian National Inclusive Developmental Alliance] parties inside and outside Parliament”.

“They have opened the space for a broader and necessary debate on the legitimate concerns surrounding this hastily enacted legislation — concerns that were neither adequately addressed during the JPC [joint parliamentary committee] deliberations nor after the day-long discussion in Parliament,” Mr. Venugopal said.

Addressing a press conference with Congress Minority Department Chairman Imran Pratapgarhi, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi said the amendments Waqf law is “not reform but a retaliation meticulously scripted, strategically timed, and Constitutionally questionable”.

Mr. Singhvi claimed that behind the “bland language of governance lies the bold ambition of control” and religious autonomy is being reduced to state-administered protocol.

“We are not here to defend just one community. We are here to defend a constitutional principle – that the rights of the few cannot be sacrificed at the altar of majoritarian convenience,”he said.

“If Article 26 can be amputated in the name of efficiency, then no freedom is safe, and no institution sacred. This is not the future the framers of our Constitution envisioned, and it is not the future we will allow,” Mr. Singhvi added.