An NPP MLA from Manipur on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the amendments to the Waqf Act, calling it discriminatory and one that singled out Muslims when no such restrictions were imposed on other communities for bequeathing their property through will or gift deeds.

Kshetrigao MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan has filed the petition against the backdrop of the protests in Manipur over the amendments. The Muslim-majority areas of Thoubal have been tense since Sunday night after a 7,000-plus mob torched the residence of state BJP Minority Morcha president Md Akser Ali for supporting the changes to the Act.

“Be it any temple or any other religious endowment, the administration of such institutions shall be left to the people from the faith to maintain sanctity and to ensure that such institutions function as per their faith-specific laws,” the petition filed through advocate-on-record Abdulla Naseeh VT said.

“However, the impugned Act’s imposition of non-Muslims and officers on waqf governance singles out Muslims, violating equality under Article 14, equality and religious autonomy under Article 26, setting a dangerous precedent for other faiths,” the petition added.

It argued: “When wills and gifts, granting exclusive rights to one against all others, are perfectly valid and protected by the law, the executor of Waqfalal-aulad (similar will or gift by a Muslim) has been barred from exercising his exclusivity, thereby making that despite an existence of Waqfalal-aulad, the law of inheritance will apply across the property.”

According to Hassan, the determination of a property as a waqf property is now in the exclusive domain of the government and the moment a dispute crops up, the government can appoint its designated officer to determine its character. In effect, the government is the “judge, jury and executioner”.