New Delhi, April 26 -- The Centre on Friday sought the Supreme Court to dismiss the pleas challenging validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 and said there cannot be a "blanket stay" on the law as there was a "presumption of its Constitutionality". In a 1,332-page preliminary counter affidavit, the Centre defended the contentious law saying that "shockingly" after 2013, there were an addition of over 20 lakh hectare (precisely 20,92,072.536) in Waqf land.
"Right before even Mughal era, pre-independence era and post-independence era, the total of Waqfs created was 18,29,163.896 acres of land in India," the affidavit said. It claimed "reported misuse" of earlier provisions to encroach upon private and Government properties. The affidavit...