The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on December 1 a batch of applications, including one filed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), seeking an extension of time for the mandatory registration of all waqf properties under the Centre’s new UMEED portal.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih took note of the submissions made by advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, who urged the court to list the matter urgently.
“List these applications along with I.A. No … on December 1, 2025,” the bench said.
The applications before the court include those filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and several others, all pressing for an extension of the six-month deadline for uploading details of waqf properties— including waqf by user—on the newly launched digital platform.
Earlier, on September 15, the Supreme Court had declined to stay the entire Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, noting the presumption of its constitutionality. However, the bench had put on hold a few key provisions, including the clause that limited the creation of waqf to persons who had practised Islam for at least five years.
The court also found no prima facie arbitrariness in the Centre’s decision to delete the long-recognised concept of waqf by user from the amended law, observing that fears of government land-grabbing “held no water”.
Waqf by user refers to recognising land as waqf based on uninterrupted, long-term religious or charitable use even without a formal declaration.
The Centre launched the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) portal on June 6 to create a geo-tagged national inventory of all waqf properties. Under the mandate, all registered waqf properties must be uploaded within six months—a deadline that petitioners say is too tight.
With the registration cycle now nearing its end, petitioners have sought more time, arguing that compliance across thousands of properties nationwide is proving difficult.
The Supreme Court will now take up the matter on December 1.
