Rush Hour: Centre to temporarily withhold sections of Waqf Act, BluSmart suspends operations & more

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The Union government on Thursday told the Supreme Court it will not implement key provisions of the amended Waqf Act until the court hears the matter again. These include denotifying existing waqf properties and appointing non-Muslims to waqf boards.

The court was hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf Amendment Act, which took effect on April 8. A waqf is an endowment under Islamic law dedicated to a religious, educational or charitable cause.

A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the government to respond to the petitions within a week and barred new appointments to waqf councils and boards until May 5.

Protests against the law have turned violent in parts of the country, with three people killed in West Bengal. The law amends 44 sections of the 1995 Waqf Act. Read on.

The Supreme Court has set aside a Delhi High Court order from April 2 directing Wikimedia Foundation to remove allegedly defamatory content about Asian News International from Wikipedia. The top court called the single-judge order “very broadly worded” and unimplementable due to a lack of clarity on who would decide if content was false or...

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