The Supreme Court has lifted the interim stay imposed by the Madras High Court on the functioning of the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board, allowing the body to resume its operations.
The Tamil Nadu Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department had issued an order on November 28 last year appointing members, including the Chairperson, to the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board.
Challenging this, advocate Shoukath Ali Mohamed had filed a petition before the Madras High Court, alleging that the appointments were made without properly following the provisions of the Central government’s unified Waqf management law.
When the matter came up for hearing on 9 January 2026 before a bench comprising Chief Justice MM Srivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan, the petitioner’s counsel argued that statutory rules had not been followed in the appointments. It was contended that, as per legal provisions, two members of the Board must be non-Muslims and one member must be nominated from the State Bar Council, but these requirements had not been complied with.
After hearing the submissions, the High Court bench held that the prescribed norms had not been followed in the appointment process and imposed an interim stay on the functioning of the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board.
Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board challenged the interim stay before the Supreme Court.
The plea came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi. Senior advocate P Wilson appeared on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board and submitted that eight members had already been appointed to the Board and only three positions remained vacant. He argued that this could not be a valid ground to stall the functioning of the statutory body. He further informed the court that a representative from the Bar Council could not yet be appointed as Bar Council elections were under way.
After hearing the submissions, the Supreme Court directed the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board to place recommendations for constituting the remaining positions in the new committee. The court also set aside the Madras High Court’s interim stay, thereby permitting the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board to continue its functioning.
Source: ETVBharat
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