New Delhi, April 30 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain any further petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf Amendment Act 2025 while allowing the petitioners to raise any additional grounds of challenge by filing an application in the main case listed next week. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna said, "The challenge in the main matter is on legal grounds and constitutional vires. If there are any additional grounds, which have not already been raised, you can raise it by way of application." The court was hearing 24 additional writ petitions challenging the 2025 Act and sought a hearing along with the matter pending in court. The bench had earlier directed the petitioners in the earlier batch of 70 cases to identify five matters which substantially deal with all possible questions of law arising in the matter. "We have already registered five cases. If there are any additional points, it is open for you to file an application. We will hear you all. The idea is don't make the case records voluminous. This way cases will just keep piling up," said the bench, also comprising justice Sanjay Kumar. Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee appearing for Trinamool Congress MP Derek O Brien said that the petition seeks to raise all the dissenting points made by the Opposition parliamentarians in the Joint Parliamentary Committee. He agreed to withdraw the petition and file an application in the main case listed for May 5. The petitions have even sought a stay of the law. The court, on the previous occasion, had recorded an assurance by the Centre that no non-Muslims will be appointed to the Central Waqf Council and Waqf Boards in states and Delhi. Additionally, the Centre even assured the court that the status of the Waqf by user properties will not be changed. The petitions filed before the court by Muslim parliamentarians, academics, religious leaders, and community organisations had contended the law infringes on Muslims' fundamental right to dedicate properties as Waqf. The five petitions nominated for hearing by the petitioners include those filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Arshad Madani, social worker Muhammad Jameel Merchant, AIMPLB general secretary Mohammed Fazlurrahim, Manipur MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan, and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. These pleas expressed particular concern that historically recognised Waqf-by-user properties, which lack formal registration documents but have functioned as waqf for generations, now face de-notification under the new registration requirements. This, petitioners claimed, threatens the legal status of numerous longstanding religious and charitable endowments across the country The affidavit maintained that "Waqf Council and State Boards do not conduct a religious function, rather regulate or supervise or oversee secular aspects of waqf - primarily administration of properties." While acknowledging that creating a Waqf is a practice encouraged in Islam, the Centre argued, "None of the essential Islamic tenets prescribe the manner in which waqf properties are administered, accounted for, or supervised."...