Supreme Court Declines To Extend Deadline For Mandatory Registration Of Waqf Properties

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to grant additional time for the compulsory registration of all waqf properties, including those categorised as “waqf by user,” on the UMEED portal.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih directed the petitioners to pursue their remedies before the appropriate tribunals before the expiry of the prescribed period.

“Our attention has been drawn to the proviso to Section 3B. Since the remedy before the tribunal is available before the applicants, we dispose of all the applications by granting them liberty to approach the tribunal by the last date of the six month period,” the bench stated.

The plea for an extension was moved by multiple parties, including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and several other petitioners. They argued that the six-month window for mandatory registration was coming to a close.

This matter follows the court’s interim order of September 15, in which it temporarily suspended certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, among them the clause requiring that only individuals who had practised Islam for at least five years could create a waqf. However, the court stopped short of staying the entire statute, emphasising that legislation carries a presumption of constitutionality.

The bench also observed that the Centre’s removal of the “waqf by user” provision in the amended law was, on a prima facie basis, not arbitrary. It dismissed as unconvincing the claim that the amendment would enable governments to seize waqf land.

The term “waqf by user” describes a long-recognised principle under which property becomes a waqf by virtue of continuous use for religious or charitable purposes, even without a formal declaration by the owner.

The Centre launched the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) portal on June 6 to create a digitally geo-tagged inventory of all waqf assets. Under this system, every registered waqf property in the country must be uploaded to the portal within a six-month period.

With PTI inputs