"High Court Is Wrong": Supreme Court Stays Order Making Tamil Nadu Waqf Board Defunct
Before the High Court, it was argued that constitution of the Board was neither complete nor in accordance with mandate of law.
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court today has stayed the order of the Madras High Court while held that the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board cannot be allowed to exercise any powers and functions under the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995.
"Of Course, the High Court is wrong. High Court order rendering the board defunct is stayed. Doctrine of necessity has to function," the Chief Justice of India observed today.
Senior Advocate P Wilson told the bench also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi that 8 members were already appointed to the Board and only three posts were remaining to be appointed.
Before the High Court a challenge was made to the constitution of Waqf Board on the grounds that one out of two persons as mandated in Clause (d) of Section 14 of the Unified Waqf Management, empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995 had not been nominated; one Member of the Bar Council as mandated in Clause (f) of Section 14 has not been nominated and that the mandate of second proviso that two of the total members of the Bar appointed under Sub-section (1) of Section 14, excluding ex-officio Members, shall be non-Muslim had not been complied with.
The petitioner before High Court, had relied on the Supreme Court's order in In Re. The Wakf Amendment Act, 2025 (1), wherein it had observed as under: “Similarly, insofar as the Board under Section 14 of the Amended Waqf Act is concerned, prima facie, it appears that 7 out of 11 members can be non-Muslims. It can be seen that insofar as categories covered under clauses (a), (b), (d), (e) and (f) of sub-section (1) of Section 14 of the Amended Waqf Act are concerned, there is no requirement that the members have to be from amongst the Muslim community. It is only the category covered under clause (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 14 of the Amended Waqf Act, where it is required that a member has to be from the Muslim community...".
Advocate General had submitted before the High Court that the constitution of the Wakf Board is almost complete as majority of the Members have already been nominated or appointed and as far as other Members are concerned, steps are being taken to complete the same.
"From a bare reading of the provisions, it is crystal clear that in order to complete the constitution of the Board under Section 14 of Act, there has to be at least two persons nominated under Clause (d) and one person nominated under Clause (f). It appears that under Clause (d), only one person has been nominated, whereas there is no nomination of any Member of the Bar Council of the State under Clause (f).... Furthermore, the mandate of second proviso that two of the total members of the Board appointed under Sub-section (1), excluding ex-offico Member, shall be non-muslim has also been not fulfilled. May be, in future, while appointing one out of two Members under Clause (d) and one under Clause (f), respondents may proceed to appoint two non-Muslims. The constitution of the Board as exists today, prima facie is not in accordance with the provisions of law," the High Court's bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan noted. Court accordingly had held that the Board cannot be allowed to exercise any powers and functions under the Act and restrained it from exercising any powers and functions.
Case Title: TAMIL NADU WAQF BOARD Vs THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU
Bench: CJI Kant, Justice Bagchi and Justice Pancholi
Hearing Date: February 19, 2026