New Delhi, Oct 9 (UNI) Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi has approached the Supreme Court seeking clarification on its decision regarding the challenge to the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, and an extension of time for the registration of waqfs on the government portal.
The matter was mentioned by advocate Nizam Pasha before a bench led by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice K. Vinod Chandran.
Pasha highlighted that while the Act provided six months for registration, five months had already elapsed during the pendency of the case.
“We now only have one month left,” he said, quoting poet Seemab Akbarabadi: “Umr daraz maang kar laaye the chaar din, do aarzoo mein kat gaye, do intezaar mein.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the union government.
The CJI agreed to list the matter, remarking, “’Let it be listed’ does not mean granting.”
On September 14, the Supreme Court had stayed certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, but had declined to interfere with the requirement mandating registration of waqfs on the centralised government portal.
According to the plea, Section 3B of the amended Act mandates that every waqf registered prior to the Amendment must upload details of its properties on the official portal within six months from the enforcement date April 8, 2025. The deadline, therefore, expires on October 8, 2025.
The petition further points out that the new Section 36(10) bars any legal proceedings to enforce rights on behalf of unregistered waqfs, meaning that failure to register would prevent such waqfs from pursuing or defending property-related cases in court.
Owaisi’s plea argues that nearly five of the six months available for compliance were lost while the court was hearing the constitutional challenge to the Act from May 20–22, with judgment delivered on September 15.
As a result, hundreds of longstanding waqfs now face the risk of dispossession and unlawful encroachment if not registered in time.
The application requests the court to “extend the six-month period prescribed under Sections 3B(1) and 36(10) of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995 (formerly known as the Waqf Act, 1995), as amended by the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, by such further period as this court may deem fit and proper.”
