Centre set to overhaul Waqf Act, to bring bill to curb Waqf Board powers: Sources

The Centre is all set to make amendments to the Waqf Act to restrict the powers of the Waqf Board, sources told India Today on Sunday. The Cabinet approved a total of 40 amendments to the act on Friday. Sources told India Today that these amendments aim to restrict the Waqf Board's authority to designate any property as "Waqf property".

"As per the proposed amendments, all claims made by the Waqf Board on properties will undergo mandatory verification. A mandatory verification process is proposed for properties claimed by the Waqf Board," the sources said, adding that the bill for these amendments is likely to be introduced in Parliament next week.

In 2013, the UPA government bolstered the authority of these boards through amendments to the original Waqf Act, 1995. This act was established to regulate 'auqaf' — assets donated and designated as waqf — by a wakif, the individual who dedicates property for purposes recognised by Muslim law as pious, religious, or charitable.

The proposed amendments aim to enhance inclusivity by ensuring women's representation on the Central Waqf Council and state boards. "The government had previously taken note of the extensive rights of state Waqf Boards to claim any property and the delays in surveying such properties in most states," the sources said. To prevent misuse of properties, the government has considered involving district magistrates in monitoring Waqf properties.

In March last year, the Centre had told the Delhi High Court that nearly 120 writ petitions challenging one or more provisions of the Waqf Act were pending before various courts in the country. The Centre's submission came during a hearing on a PIL by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

Upadhyay had challenged the validity of certain provisions of the Waqf Act and sought a direction from the Centre to enact a "uniform law for trust and trustees, charities and charitable institutions, and religious endowments and institutions". He claimed that Waqf properties cannot enjoy any "special rights" that have not been given to the trusts, charitable and religious institutions run by non-Islamic religious groups.

The petitioner said the Waqf Act 1995 was made under the garb of managing waqf properties but there were no similar laws for followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Bahaism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. "Hence, it is against the secularism, unity and integrity of the nation."

"The Waqf Act has given wide and uncontrolled powers to waqf boards and waqf properties have been placed over and above other charitable religious institutions. No other enactment has conferred such wide powers and status," it has asserted.

"The board has been given the power to decide as to whether a particular property is a Waqf property or not and under section 40, it can question any property belonging to any trust or society and has power to declare the same as Waqf property. No safeguard has been given to the persons whose properties are being treated as Waqf property by the Waqf Board and even they have no occasion or opportunity to know about the decision, if any, passed by Waqf Board under section 40," the petition said.

(With inputs from Himanshu Mishra)