New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has also approached the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
Meanwhile, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan has listed for hearing on April 16 ten other petitions, including the one filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, challenging the validity of the law.
Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Zia-ur-Rahman Barq, had recently also filed a plea on the issue in the apex court.
Moitra, who filed her plea on April 9, has said the controversial amendment not only suffered from serious procedural lapses but also violated several fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
“It is submitted that the violation of parliamentary practices during the law-making process has contributed to the unconstitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025,” the plea said.
“Procedurally, the Chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee flouted parliamentary rules and practices both at the stage of consideration and adoption of the draft report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill and at the stage of presentation of the said report before Parliament,” it said.
The plea said that dissenting opinions from the opposition MPs were reportedly redacted without justification from the final report presented in Parliament on February 13, 2025.
Such actions undermined the deliberative process of Parliament and violated established norms as outlined in authoritative parliamentary procedure manuals, it said.
The plea said the new law allegedly infringed upon Articles 14 (equality before the law), 15(1) (non-discrimination), 19(1)(a) and (c) (freedom of speech and association), 21 (right to life and personal liberty), 25 and 26 (freedom of religion), 29 and 30 (minority rights), and Article 300A (right to property) of the Constitution.
Moitra sought striking down of the Act in its entirety, citing its procedural irregularities and substantive violations of the Constitution.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan, Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, Arshad Madani, Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema, Anjum Kadari, Taiyyab Khan Salmani, Mohammad Shafi, Mohammed Fazlurrahim and RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha have also moved the top court on the issue.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed are other key petitioners in the case.
"The Special NIA court in Delhi issued non-bailable warrants, and Interpol Red Notices were secured for absconding accused. This was not a media stunt but quiet, determined legal diplomacy.
"In 2012, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai took up the matter of Headley's and Rana's extradition with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Under Secretary Wendy Sherman," he said.
By January 2013, Headley was sentenced to 35 years and Rana's sentencing in the US also took place, the Congress leader said.
"India's demand for Headley's extradition was reiterated firmly, even as the UPA government expressed its disappointment at the sentence. Then Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao also pursued the matter consistently," he said.
Chidambaram asserted that this was a textbook example of how sensitive issues of international justice should be handled through diplomacy.
"Even after the change in government in 2014, it was the institutional efforts already in motion that kept the case alive. In 2015, Headley agreed to turn approver in the 26/11 case," he said.
In 2016, a Mumbai court pardoned him on the condition of full cooperation, which helped the case against Zabiuddin Ansari (Abu Jundal), he said.
A team visited the US in December 2018 to resolve legal hurdles and again in January 2019 was told that Rana must serve his full sentence in the US, Chidambaram said.
"His release date was set for 2023, accounting for time served. These are not 'strong leader' moments, but are the slow wheels of justice, pushed forward by years of hard work. In June 2020, after Rana was released on health grounds, the Indian government requested his arrest," he noted.
Pointing out that the Biden administration supported his extradition, Chidambaram said that in May 2023, a US court certified his extraditability under the US-India Extradition Treaty.
"Rana appealed and filed multiple petitions including a habeas corpus and, finally, a writ to the US Supreme Court citing double jeopardy. All were rejected. The final denial came on January 21, 2025, a day after Donald Trump's inauguration," he said.
In February 2025, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump stood at a press conference and tried to take credit for what was essentially the result of years of UPA-era groundwork, he said.
By February 17, Indian officials confirmed Rana's role in the 26/11 conspiracy, dating back to 2005, when he coordinated with LeT and ISI operatives, Chidambaram said, adding that finally, on April 8, 2025, US authorities handed over Rana to Indian officials.
"Let the facts be clear: the Modi government did not initiate this process, nor did it secure any new breakthrough. It merely benefited from the mature, consistent and strategic diplomacy begun under the UPA," Chidambaram said.
"This extradition is not the result of any grandstanding, it is a testament to what the Indian state can achieve when diplomacy, law enforcement, and international cooperation are pursued sincerely and without any kind of chest-thumping," he said.