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The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has opposed the Centre’s contention that waqf properties registered a “shocking” 116% increase after 2013, claiming that the statement was “unsupported” and “conceals material facts”, The Indian Express reported on Sunday.
Responding to the Centre’s preliminary affidavit to petitions challenging the 2025 Waqf Amendment Act, the board in a rejoinder affidavit submitted on Thursday accused it of making “false” claims to “mislead” the court.
The amendments to the Act seek “to impose its own subjective understanding about essentials of Islam upon the believers of Islam”, the board said in its rejoinder, adding that the amended legislation brought “self-administration under the Waqf Act to a grinding halt”.
A waqf is an endowment under Islamic law dedicated to a religious, educational or charitable cause. Each state has a waqf board led by a legal entity vested with the power to acquire, hold and transfer property.
The 2024 Waqf Amendment Bill proposed amendments to 44 sections of the 1995 Waqf Act, including allowing non-Muslims on waqf boards, restricting property donations and changing how waqf tribunals function. The Act was last amended in 2013.
The bill was cleared by Parliament on April 4. It received presidential assent on April 5 and took effect on April 8.
The Congress and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, among others, have challenged the constitutionality of the bill in the Supreme Court.
At an earlier hearing on April 25, the Centre opposed the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Act before the court.
In a preliminary affidavit filed by Shersha C Shaik Mohiddin, the joint secretary in the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Centre claimed that the law did not violate the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
It also flagged the alleged “misuse of waqf provisions to encroach private properties and government properties”, adding: “It is really shocking to know that after the amendment brought in the year 2013, there is 116% rise in auqaf [plural of waqf] area”, The Indian Express reported.
It also referred to the number of waqf properties uploaded on the Waqf Management System of India, better known as the WAMSI portal, as proof.
The portal is an online, integrated system for managing waqf properties in India. It is an initiative under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, designed to help state waqf boards manage and maintain information about waqf assets, including their registration, location, and changes.
In its rejoinder affidavit, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board claimed that the “chart [showing the waqf property data] and relatable averment in the affidavit [submitted by the Centre], the way it has been projected, is completely misconceived and misleading, apart from being inaccurate”.
“It appears that in its affidavit, the Union of India is suggesting that all the properties registered as Waqf before 2013 were immediately uploaded on the WAMSI portal, when it became operational,” PTI quoted the board as saying.
“At page 158 [in the Centre’s affidavit], the first column with the title ‘number of properties in 2013’ to say that the number of waqf properties reflected therein were the only registered properties is mischievous,” the rejoinder affidavit added.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board also claimed that the “deponent [the officer who filed] of the counter-affidavit has not been candid to this court and, it appears, has carefully avoided making a statement that ‘all the registered Waqf properties were uploaded on the web portal in the year 2013.’”
It added: “Since this crucial aspect is missing in the affidavit, the sanctity of this chart itself is seriously doubtful.”
The board said that updating the WAMSI portal was a “work in progress” and that it would keep acknowledging and reflecting already registered waqf properties.
“Even otherwise, the figures supplied by the respondent appears to be in clear contradiction with the records maintained on the…portal,” it claimed.
Government data showed that the number of waqf estates as of October 31, 2024, as per information provided by the chief executive officers of waqf boards, was 3,30,008, the rejoinder affidavit said.
However, the “counter-affidavit [submitted by the Centre] states that in 2025, the number of properties is 6,65,476”, the board added. “Both these figures are contradictory, though it has been compiled by the same set of people of the government agencies.”
It added that such an “exponential increase in figures” as projected by the Centre could be due to double counting, according to The Indian Express.
“In instances where a comprehensive waqf land comprises multiple waqfs such as dargahs, hospital, mosques, and graveyards, situated within the same premises or patta number, each would be counted separately,” it said. “Only through such manipulation could the respondents’ statistical claims appear valid, which are in fact wholly erroneous.”
The board said that the officer who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre must state in another affidavit that the number of properties reflected on the WAMSI portal contained all the registered waqfs as on 2013, PTI reported.
“Thus, the claim that there has been a ‘shocking’ increase in the number of Waqf properties since 2013 is a claim that is unsupported and amounts to scurrilous allegation in pleading,” it added. “This Hon’ble court has the power to strike off such pleadings.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter next on May 5.
On April 17, the Centre had assured the court that it would not denotify waqf properties or make any new appointments to the Central Waqf Council or State Waqf Boards until that date.
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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