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Supreme Court waqf on Umeed portal Property Has refused to extend the deadline for registration of Waqf (Waqf Registration). The court clearly said that if for some reason the registration is not being done, then the demand for extension of time can be made only from the concerned Waqf Tribunal (Waqf Registration).

The petitioners had argued that only six months were given for registration of Waqf property on the portal, while five months had passed since the interim decision on the Waqf Act was given, leaving very little time to submit the application.

The petitioners also said that the portal (Waqf Registration) has server issues and many mutawallis are not available, which hampers the upload process. The court said during the hearing that under Section 3B of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, the tribunal has the power to extend the time in appropriate cases.

The bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustin George Masih, while disposing of all the petitions, made it clear that the applicants can seek extension of time from the concerned tribunal within the prescribed period.

At the beginning of the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that the amendments came into effect from April 8, the portal became active on June 6, the rules came on July 3, and the interim order came on September 15.

He said that it is difficult to find documents of waqfs which are 100-150 years old and the portal does not accept the forms without complete information. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi also raised the issue of technical shortcomings of the portal and sought additional time.

Here, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that according to Section 3B, the tribunal has full power to extend the time, hence every Waqf can go to different tribunals and ask for extension. He informed that the portal is operational from June 6 and the last date is December 6. He also said that a large number of Waqfs have already been registered.

Kapil Sibal argued that this would require approximately 10 lakh mutawallis to make separate applications, and in many cases searching 100-year-old deeds is not practical. The court said that in such cases, solution can be found only from the tribunal. Senior advocate M.R. Shamshad said that the dispute is not about registration, but about digitization of already registered properties, which has not been included in the interim order.

Another party said that many states have not completed the Waqf survey under Section 4, hence compulsory registration cannot be implemented. Advocate Nizam Pasha said that the period of six months should be counted from the date of amendment and it has already expired on October 10, hence the tribunal cannot grant further time. SG Mehta termed this as wrong and said that the deadline is till December 6.

Finally the Court (Waqf Registration) said that under the provision of Section 3B the Tribunal can extend the time, and all the applicants should approach the Tribunal before the last date. The court clearly refused to grant extension and disposed of the petitions.

The matter pertains to the Waqf Amendment Act 2025, under which mandatory registration of all Waqf properties including “Waqf by Use” has been implemented on the Umeed portal. Many parties including AIMPLB, MP Asaduddin Owaisi were demanding extension of time. Owaisi had said in his petition that five out of six months were spent in the court hearing, hence if time is not extended, the old waqfs may suffer huge losses.