Where and how much property does the Waqf have?

The Waqf Amendment Bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha. The name of this bill is United

Waqf Management Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act 1995.

The new bill has been brought to amend the Waqf Act of 1995.

According to the provision of the new bill, only a person who has followed Islam for five consecutive years and has the ownership of the property being donated can make the donation. In the new bill, the right to survey has been given to the Collector instead of the Waqf Commissioner.

The collector's decision will be considered effective in the dispute of Waqf property under government control. According to this bill, the decision of the Waqf Tribunal will not be considered final. Read more on Telangana news at Vaartha.

What is the response

Despite the objections of Muslim organizations and the opposition on all these provisions, this amendment bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha. The opposition has called this bill unconstitutional.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote on the social media site X, "This is an attack on the Constitution. Today Muslims are the target, tomorrow some other community may be the target."

However, many Muslim organizations are making strategies to challenge this new amended law.

On the Waqf Amendment Bill, Supreme Court lawyer Fuzail Ahmed Ayubi says, "Waqf land does not belong to the government. Rather, it is donated land. Which people had donated from their own property. But the government is making it look as if Waqf has taken over government land."

During the discussion on this bill in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah had accused the opposition and said, "I think that either innocently or for political reasons, there are a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the members and efforts are being made to spread them."

“Some people are spreading rumours that this Act will interfere with the religious rights and properties of the Muslim community. This is completely false and is merely a conspiracy to scare the minorities so that they can be used as a vote bank.” Follow updates in the ePaper on Vaartha.

How much land does the Waqf have

According to the data, Waqf has approximately 9.4 lakh acres of land.

If we compare it with the Defence Ministry and Railways, then it is at third place in India in terms of Waqf land.

The Defence Ministry has 17.95 lakh acres of land, while the Railways has about 12 lakh acres of land.

The UPA government created the Vamsi portal in 2009. This portal is working as a database of Waqf property. According to the government, Waqf has 9.4 lakh acres of land.

The area of ​​this much land is more than some states and union territories. The total area of ​​Goa is 9.14 lakh acres (3702 sq km).

The total area of ​​the capital Delhi is 3.66 lakh acres (1484 square km).

The Union Territory of Dadra Nagar Haveli is spread over 1.21 lakh acres, while the area of ​​Chandigarh is approximately 28,000 acres.

How many waqf properties in which state

According to the Vamsi portal, 8,72,324 immovable properties of Waqf were identified and 16,713 movable properties. Of these, 97 percent properties are in only 15 states.

According to the Vamsi portal, 58,890 properties are encroached upon, while no information is available on the site about 4,36,179 properties. At the same time, cases are going on against 13,000 properties.

According to this portal, only 39 percent of the total Waqf properties are without any dispute.

The Central Government had taken over approximately 123 Waqf properties in Delhi, which were returned to the Waqf by the UPA Government. The controversy over this is ongoing.

According to the data of the Ministry of Minority Affairs of 9 February 2022, there were about 2,15,000 Waqf properties in Uttar Pradesh, while there are about 80,480 Waqf properties in West Bengal, 10,708 in Andhra Pradesh, 30,881 in Gujarat. It has about 8,600 properties in Bihar.

However, these figures have increased in 2025. In Uttar Pradesh alone, there are now 2,32,000 Waqf properties.

According to the current statistics, the maximum Waqf property is registered in the name of graveyards, which is approximately 1.5 lakh. Whereas 1.19 lakh are in the name of mosques.

There are 17 thousand properties in the name of Imambara or Ashoorkhana and 14 thousand properties in the name of madrasas. There are approximately 34 thousand Mazaars and Dargahs.

There are approximately 1 lakh 13 thousand properties of business importance and 92,000 houses. While about 1 lakh 40,000 properties are agricultural land.

On the issue of Waqf land, Home Minister Amit Shah had said, “From 1913 to 2013, the total land of the Waqf Board was 18 lakh acres, which increased by 21 lakh acres between 2013 and 2025.”

“Out of this 39 lakh acres of land, 21 lakh acres of land is after 2013. The properties given on lease were 20 thousand, but as per the records, these properties became zero in 2025. These properties were sold.”

What is Waqf?

There is mention of two types of property in the Waqf Act. The first Waqf is in the name of Allah, that is, such property which has been dedicated to Allah and for which there are no heirs left. Provision has been made in the new bill about this second type of Waqf. In this, the right of inheritance of women should not be abolished. Once such donated property comes into the account of Waqf, the district collector will be able to use it for the welfare of widowed women or children without parents. Waqf is any movable or immovable property, which any person who believes in Islam donates in the name of Allah or for religious purposes or for the purpose of charity. This property becomes the property of the society for the purpose of welfare and no one is its owner except Allah and cannot be.

In favour of this bill, All India Muslim Jamaat's national president Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi said, "Through this amendment, the central government will stop the arbitrariness in the matter of Waqf Board's property. This will curb the business of selling or leasing Waqf property in connivance with land mafias."

However, during the discussion on this bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, there was a heated debate between the ruling party and the opposition.

Courtesy: BBC