Supreme Court to list Owaisi’s plea for more time to register Waqf properties under UMEED.
Owaisi’s lawyer says only one month remains of the six-month registration period.
Court earlier stayed parts of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, but upheld its main provisions.
Supreme Court To Hear Owaisi Plea Seeking More Time For Waqf Property Registration
Asaduddin Owaisi moves Supreme Court for an extension of the six-month deadline to register Waqf properties, including ‘Waqf by user’, under the Centre’s digital UMEED portal.
Summary
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list for hearing a plea filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi seeking more time for the mandatory registration of all Waqf properties, including those recognised as ‘Waqf by user’, on the Centre’s UMEED portal.
According to PTI, the matter was earlier scheduled for consideration on October 28 but could not be taken up. On Monday, advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for Owaisi, mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, requesting an urgent hearing.
“We will give a date,” the CJI said.
Pasha told the bench that the six-month deadline for registration under the amended Waqf law was drawing to a close. He noted that while six months had been allowed for registration, “five months went during the judgement, we now only have one month left.”
In an interim order issued on September 15, the Supreme Court had stayed certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, including the clause restricting the creation of Waqf to those practising Islam for at least five years. However, the court declined to suspend the entire law, noting the presumption of its constitutionality.
The bench also found that the Centre’s move to remove the ‘Waqf by user’ provision in the amended legislation was prima facie not arbitrary. It observed that the claim that government authorities might seize Waqf lands “held no water.”
‘Waqf by user’ refers to properties deemed Waqf because of their consistent and long-term use for religious or charitable purposes, even without a formal written declaration.
The Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) portal was launched by the Centre on June 6 to create a centralised digital inventory of Waqf properties through geo-tagging. Under the mandate, all registered Waqf properties across India must be uploaded on the portal within six months.
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Pasha had earlier filed a miscellaneous application seeking an extension of this registration deadline, arguing that much of the allotted time had already elapsed since the law’s implementation.
(With inputs from PTI)
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