THE WAQF (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2025

This Bill amends the Waqf Act, 1995 to rename it as the 'Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development' Act and introduces stricter conditions for creating waqfs, including requiring the creator to be a lawful owner and a Muslim for at least five years. It also mandates the registration of existing waqfs on a central digital portal and establishes mechanisms to verify whether properties claimed as waqf are actually government property.

The Bill affects waqf creators (specifically those practising Islam for at least five years), existing waqf boards and mutawallis (managers), government organisations (Central and State), and the general public regarding the use of waqf properties for welfare purposes such as the maintenance of widows, divorced women, and orphans.

• Renames the Waqf Act, 1995 to 'Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development'.
• Defines 'Aghakhani waqf' and 'Bohra waqf' explicitly in the Act.
• Requires waqf creators to be lawful owners of the property and to have practised Islam for at least five years.
• Prohibits the creation of 'waqf-alal-aulad' (waqf for descendants) if it denies inheritance rights to heirs, including women.
• Mandates that all existing registered waqfs file detailed information (boundaries, income, expenses, court cases) on a central portal and database within six months of the Act's commencement.
• Establishes a process where the Collector of land-revenue investigates claims that government property has been wrongly declared as waqf property.
• Transfers pending surveys of auqaf from the Survey Commissioner to the Collector.
• Requires a 90-day public notice in two daily newspapers (one in regional language) before any mutation in land records for waqf properties.
• Restructures the Central Council and State Boards to include specific representation from Muslim organisations, scholars, mutawallis, and non-Muslim members, with mandatory inclusion of women and representatives from Shia, Sunni, Bohra, and Aghakhani communities where applicable.
• Allows State Governments to establish separate Boards of Auqaf for Bohras and Aghakhanis if deemed necessary.

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