SC seeks Centre reply on Kerala Waqf Board plea to extend UMEED portal upload deadline

The Supreme Court on Saturday sought the Centre’s response to a plea filed by the Kerala Waqf Board seeking an extension of time to upload details of nearly 25,000 of the 60,000 Waqf properties in the state onto a centralised portal maintained by the Centre.

While the Board requested an interim direction, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant remarked, “You are also taking it leisurely,” noting the statutory mandate under Section 3-B of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development Act (UMEED), 2025, which requires the verification and uploading exercise on the UMEED portal to be completed within six months. The same provision further provides that an extension of time can be sought by the manager of the Waqf property, but even in such cases, the time cannot be extended beyond six months.

The top court was inclined to extend the time by four months. “Four months will be sufficient. We will issue a notice to the Central government. Since there is a restriction under the statute, their response is necessary,” it said.

The matter will next be heard on September 7.

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Senior advocate V Chitambaresh, along with advocate KR Subhash Chandran, appeared for the Kerala Waqf Board. Chitambaresh said that the number of Waqf properties in Kerala is significantly large, and citing this, the board had sought an extension of time from the Kerala High Court. Under the statute, the time expired on May 17, 2026, precisely a year after the Act came into force. The high court, on July 8, granted only a one-month extension.

Terming this extended period inadequate, Chitambaresh said: “Kerala has approximately 13,000 waqf institutions and more than 60,000 waqf properties. Despite persistent technical glitches, more than 40,000 properties have already been verified and approved and approximately 25,000 properties remain pending for verification and approval.”

The board sought an extension of six months, stating that the exercise involves not merely data entry, but detailed statutory scrutiny, verification, and approval of legally significant particulars relating to Waqf properties as well.

In its petition, the board said that the legislative intent of the UMEED Act is to facilitate effective compliance with the collection of Waqf property details, and such an objective cannot be defeated through a rigid technical interpretation. “Any refusal to grant extension of six months would seriously prejudice the interests of thousands of registered Auqaf and would frustrate the legislative intention behind the creation of the centralized digital repository,” it added.

It also cited a recent precedent in which the Delhi High Court, in April this year, allowed the Delhi Waqf Board a further extension of six months to upload the data onto the UMEED portal, along with a direction to the Union government to open the portal from May 15 until November 14.