Supreme Court to Hear Asaduddin Owaisi’s Plea Seeking More Time to Register Waqf Properties
AIMIM chief urges the top court to extend the six-month deadline for registering Waqf and ‘Waqf by user’ properties on the UMEED portal.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi seeking an extension of the deadline for the mandatory registration of all Waqf properties, including those classified as ‘Waqf by user’, under the UMEED portal.
The matter was earlier scheduled for hearing on October 28, but it could not be taken up. On Monday, Owaisi’s counsel, Advocate Nizam Pasha, requested the court to list the plea urgently before a bench led by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran.
Responding to the request, the CJI said, “We will give a date.”
Pasha told the court that the six-month window for completing the registration process was about to expire. “Five months have already passed during the pendency of the judgment; we now have only one month left,” he said.
In an earlier interim order dated September 15, the Supreme Court had stayed certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, including a clause stating that only those practising Islam for at least five years could create a Waqf. However, the court declined to suspend the entire Act, emphasizing the presumption of constitutionality of legislation.
The court had also upheld, on a prima facie basis, the Centre’s move to remove the ‘Waqf by user’ provision, observing that the argument about potential government land grabs “held no water.”
The term ‘Waqf by user’ refers to properties recognized as Waqf based on their long-standing religious or charitable use, even without a formal written declaration by the owner.
The Centre launched the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) portal on June 6, 2025, to digitally record and geo-tag all Waqf properties across India. Under the new mandate, details of every Waqf property must be uploaded on the portal within six months.
Owaisi’s plea seeks more time for completing this registration process, citing practical difficulties and delays caused by ongoing legal proceedings.
