Just 0.3% of Waqf records on Union database till now

FEwer than 3,000 waqf records feature been uploaded to the exchange UMEED portal so far come out of an estimated subject take stock of 872,000 properties, leaving the bulk of the country’s waqf estate unrecorded ahead of a December deadline. A senior official in the ministry of minority affairs told HT that state governments have not completed the uploads required to meet the six-month timeline despite repeated review meetings convened by the ministry.Data presented in Parliament earlier this year showed how wide the gap is. At that point only 9,279 ownership documents and 1,083 registered waqf deeds had been uploaded to the earlier WAMSI system. That legacy shortfall has now been carried into the new UMEED framework, with ministry officials acknowledging that the pace of data entry remains far below what the rules require.“The tribunals will now face a lot of pressure and, in turn, a backlog of cases if the uploading work does not pick up. We have been conducting training and review meetings with states, but many states are not taking the work seriously. There was some hesitation earlier because states were waiting for clarity from the Supreme Court, but we are hopeful that after the interim order the pace will improve,” the official said.On September 15, the Supreme Court stayed certain provisions of the Waqf law including one that required a person intending to create a waqf to prove that he had been practising Islam for five years and another that allowed the designated officer and a State government to unilaterally alter revenue and Waqf Board records, changing the status of a waqf property into a government property. The court said registrations would be mandatory, but protected the status of existing waqfs from de-notification pending final adjudication.Meanwhile, the ministry has also drafted two important documents—a set of model rules for states under the Waqf Amendment Act and a comprehensive dossier on the Supreme Court’s interim order. Both are expected to be circulated within a week, once they are approved by the Union law ministry.The UMEED portal was launched in June 2025 as part of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 and the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Rules, 2025. Together they create a centralised digital register intended to bring transparency and consistency to waqf records. The law requires every waqf existing at the time of commencement to file details of the waqf and its property on the national portal within six months of commencement. The rules also provide that a Waqf Tribunal may extend this six-month period for up to another six months if good cause is shown, but ministry officials have so far pressed states to finish within the original period.State governments and waqf boards have cited multiple reasons for delay. At ministry review meetings, officials pointed to severe staff shortages in many state boards, where vacancies include even full-time CEOs. Others highlighted data gaps: large numbers of properties are “waqf by user,” claimed by communities or mutawallis without formal deeds, making digital registration difficult. One state official told Hindustan Times that deed verification and mapping in villages require multiple levels of clearance that cannot be compressed into a few months. These bottlenecks, combined with the absence of digitised records in many states, have slowed uploads considerably.The minority affairs ministry official cited in the first instance also told Hindustan Times that the next major step for the ministry will be operationalisation of the National Waqf Development Corporation, or NAWADCO, which is being given a central role under the new regime. Conceived earlier as a vehicle to mobilise waqf land for development, NAWADCO is now being positioned to lease and develop properties commercially within the legal safeguards of the amended Act and rules.“There is severe corruption on waqf lands, these lands are prime property areas but most of the money is pocketed by the waqf managers. NAWADCO will help in cutting down the corruption as the land could be developed for commercial use. The proposal has been pending with the Centre for really long so we are trying to expedite the approval,” said the official.Ministry notes show that consultations are under way with state boards, legal experts and potential development partners to build rules for how NAWADCO will operate. Officials said the draft rules remain internal for now and will be published once states and legal authorities have provided input and the Centre has cleared them.Officials from several state waqf boards told HT that the UMEED portal continues to face technical glitches because of which they have not uploaded the property details. Gujarat officials said missing city and area lists were causing “significant delays.” Bihar officials cited absent village data, failed admin logins, and difficulty creating checker and approver IDs. Andhra Pradesh officials called the portal “seriously and recurring[ly] unstable,” saying one maker registration “takes an entire day.” Assam officials sought clarity on training modules. Other complaints by officials included OTP failures, decimal input errors, and missing taluks.The ministry official said that these glitches are “normal” and that a technical team solves it within a day of the complaints being raised.