Muslims may lose huge Waqf property after Special Intensive Revision

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By Syed Ali Mujtaba, Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: The activity of the Waqf Amendment Act has shifted to the (UMEED) portal, where the registration of the Waqf properties is being done through the ‘Unified Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development’ system. The UMEED portal is a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) website where the Waqf properties are put into three three-pronged tests of the ‘maker,’ checker, and “approver” to qualify as a Waqf property.

This three-layered system for the registration of Waqf properties is a time bomb ticking for Indian Muslims.  This is because many Waqf properties lack documentary evidence and cannot qualify for the special intensive reservation test. As a result, Muslims are bound to lose a huge number of properties that are endowed to them by the community members for their welfare.

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The community is yet to wake up to face this reality and make preparations for how to deal with any such eventuality if and when it arises. The hard fact is there are several Waqf properties that do not qualify for the norms of registration at the UMEED portal.   In such a case, will the government take over all such property is giving sleepless nights to the community?

So far, the UMEED portal has registered only 4,000 properties, whereas there is revenue records tell that there are 8.72 lakh Waqf properties in India.  The Waqf property is spread over 38 lakh acres of land in the country, which accounts for nearly 5% of the total land mass of India.

Now, through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Waqf properties are again being registered at the UMEED portal. The portal’s database should contain documentary evidence of the people who have Waqf their properties, related registered deed, accounts, and it audit report, maintenance register, financial status, court cases, and other such details.

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It looks like the reregistration of the Waqf properties is not going to be an easy task. The state and central Waqf boards, which are government bodies, do not have authentic papers as required by the UMEED portal.

According to the new Waqf Act, the burden of proof is on the Muslim community and not on the government’s record office. The record left behind by the British government identifies the Waqf property, but does not mention the details that are required by the UMEED portal. There is no name of the person who made Waqf, the measurement of the property is missing, and so is the boundary of the property and other details.

It needs to be mentioned here that the history of Waqf is as old as the Muslims’ presence in India. It’s a culmination of centuries of endowments made by the faithful for the welfare of the community that is being put to the test.  In recent times, the largest number of endowments happened during the time of the Partition of India. The Muslims who left for Pakistan did Waqf their property for the welfare of their community left in India. This was done through “oral-hiba” without making any registered deed. Now this is unacceptable to the UMEED portal and cannot constitute Waqf property. That is the reason the Amended Waqf Act is unacceptable to the Muslims.

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The next milestone in the history of the Waqf property is 1955, when the Zamindari system was abolished. Many Muslim landlords did a Waqf of their property to save it from going to the government’s coffers. This was done without any formal registration process.

The 1968 Urban and Rural Celling Act is another milestone in the history of Waqf. This Act restricted property-holders from keeping minimum assets in their personal possession. This made many Muslims endow their extra property to the community without any registration process.

According to the provisions of the new Waqf Act, only property that is formally transferred to the Waqf board through a written document or a will can be considered eligible to be registered at the UMEED portal.  In such cases, the Waqf Board must have the legal documents for the Waqf properties. The unregistered Waqf properties, including those in the category of ‘Waqf by user’ cannot be included in the database of the UMEED portal.

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There are several categories of Waqf property in India. The first is ‘Waqf by Users’, which is in the shape of Mosques, Imambara, Eidgah, Dargah, and a graveyard. They are in use by the Muslim community for their religious purposes. They are by the naturalization process and are accepted as Waqf properties. There are more than 4.2 lakh such properties that come in the category of ‘Waqf by user.’ Muslims have to forfeit the claims of all such property, as per the Waqf Amended Act of 2025.

The second kind of Waqf property is held by the Archeological Survey of India. The ASI has many historical mosques, tombs, and other Muslim religious sites, which otherwise should have been Waqf property. According to the amended Waqf Act, all such property now belongs to the government, and the Muslim community has no claims over it.

Waqf properties are of two kinds. One is for the religious purpose, the second is the property that is generating revenue, and is for the purpose of uplifting the socio–economic condition of the Muslims. According to the information provided by the Waqf board, 38 lakh acres of land are Waqf property. But no one knows the income from the land source and where such an income is spent.  Similarly, there are urban Waqf properties that are in the form of commercial establishments but not know their number, their value, and how much income they generate, and where it is being used.

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Currently, the UMEED portal is moving at a sluggish pace due to record registration challenges. Only around 4,000 properties so far have been registered compared to the total 8.72 lakh Waqf establishments spread across 30 States/UTs in India.

Under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, the mutawalli (caretaker) will serve as the ‘maker’, entering property details. The Waqf Board official will function as the ‘checker’, reviewing and validating entries. Finally, a designated ‘government authority’ will act as the ‘approver’, to ensure full verification of the records.

This is creating more problems than solving them. According to the new Waqf Amendment Act, all the property that is not registered and does not qualify for the three-layer check will have to be omitted from the registration process at the UNEED portal.

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An official from the Uttar Pradesh Waqf board has reportedly said, “UMEED portal demands old revenue records. U.P. has over 2.3 lakh properties under the Shia and Sunni Waqf boards.  The onus of finding these records lies with government officials, not with Waqf board members. When the revenue department says they are unable to find the record, in such a case, how can the Waqf board provide the documents to the UMEED portal?

A member of the UP Waqf board, illustrating this point, reportedly said, “The UMEED portal seeks the date of a survey conducted nearly 80 years ago on a graveyard in Lucknow. The burial site was Waqf by the user’s property, but today, there is no way to provide any information about this property. The old revenue records are a mix of Persian and Arabic languages, and today there is none to read them as it’s centuries old and in a depleted condition.

Another Waqf Board member from Haryana highlighted the problem that providing precise boundary details of the Waqf property is not an easy job. In many cases, a person Waqf only a share of land, while other portions remain under different co-owners. In such a case, how can boundaries be clearly defined?

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According to the new Waqf Act, such property cannot be registered because it wants fool-proof records. As a result, it is ‘impossible’ to fill the UMEED portal’s columns. Such complaints have come from states such as Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Maharashtra. Some Waqf officials complain that the UMEED  portal has been made in a hurry, and there are problems at every stage of the registration process, from missing city, area, and ward names.

The government officials managing the UMEED portal are unable to comment on the properties that are not going to be registered at the Waqf portal. Obliquely, they hinted that the real number of Waqf properties will certainly be less than it is currently being estimated.

In this context, a Waqf Board official has cautioned that there is going to be a huge fall in the figures of Waqf property after the final registration process is completed at the UMEED portal. ‘The hype that Muslims are the largest landowners of the country is a myth,’ he said.

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The BJP government, by bringing in the Waqf Amendment Act, is creating problems for the Muslim community.  The community should be prepared to give a response if the robbery of their Waqf properties may happen in broad daylight.

In Tamil Nadu, a Muslim MLA, M.H. Jawahirullah, has reacted, saying that the UMEED portal is illegal and constitutes contempt of court. “The Waqf administrators and State Waqf Boards should refrain from registering Waqf properties at the UMMED portal,” he said.

The Jamat Ulema–e–Hind, the largest body of Muslims, has given a call for the boycott of the Waqf Amendment Act. Although it has deferred its ‘Bharat Band’ call temporarily, its call for a huge rally at Delhi’s historic Ramlila ground on November 16, 2025 is still stands in place.

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Curated by Humra Kidwai

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