Waqf Act Challenge: Governing Religious Endowments in India, Full Timeline

Supreme Court lists the main challenge for 21 January 2027 Supreme Court

What happened: The bench directed all parties to complete their pleadings by 31 December 2026 and posted the petitions for hearing on 21 January 2027. The nodal counsel told the Court that five petitions had earlier been chosen as lead matters and 135 others treated as interlocutory applications.

The directions: Applicants whose cases had been treated as applications were allowed to file separate writ petitions within two weeks. The nodal counsel is to compile written submissions and the judgments relied on, and the Additional Solicitor General is to respond. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked the Court to keep the 17 April 2025 arrangement limiting the hearing to the five lead petitions.

Petitioners press for an urgent hearing; Court says 4 November Supreme Court

What happened: Petitioners told the Court the matter needed to be heard urgently, saying the status of waqf properties was changing while the case waited. Bar & Bench reported that the Court said it would hear the petitions, including pleas for further interim relief, on 4 November. Reports name a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

What followed: The matter was taken up on 3 November by a different bench, which set the January date. The reports I found on that hearing do not mention any new interim order.

Court refuses a blanket extension of the UMEED registration deadline Supreme Court

What happened: Petitioners including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Asaduddin Owaisi asked for more time to upload waqf property details to the UMEED portal. The Court said the Act itself lets a mutawalli seek more time from the Waqf Tribunal, so it would not order a blanket extension, and disposed of the applications with liberty to go to the Tribunal.

The numbers: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Court about 1,16,600 properties had been uploaded by then. After the ruling the Union government said it would not penalise late registrations for three months after the deadline.

Interim judgment: the law stays, parts of it are put on hold Supreme Court

Stayed: The rule that only a person practising Islam for at least five years can create a waqf, until state governments frame rules on how to prove it. The rule that a property stops being treated as waqf while a designated officer inquires whether it is government land, and the officer’s power to decide title and change revenue records. Until the Tribunal and High Court decide, no one is to be dispossessed and no third-party rights created.

Limited: Non-Muslim members were allowed but capped: no more than four in the Central Waqf Council and three in a State Waqf Board. The Court said the Board’s chief executive officer should, as far as possible, be a Muslim.

Left in force: The registration requirement, which the Court noted has existed in some form since 1923; the end of new waqf by user, which applies only going forward; and the bars on waqf over protected monuments and tribal land in Scheduled Areas.

UMEED Rules are notified Rules & registration

What happened: The Union government notified the rules governing the central portal, the upload of waqf details and the record of each property. The portal itself had gone live on 6 June 2025, which started the six-month window for registering existing waqfs under the new Section 3B.

UMEED portal goes live Rules & registration

What happened: The Ministry of Minority Affairs launched the central portal on which details of every registered waqf were to be uploaded. The Act gives six months from its start, with the Waqf Tribunal able to allow up to six months more in individual cases.

Three days of arguments; interim order reserved Supreme Court

What happened: The bench limited this round to interim relief on three issues: waqf by user, non-Muslim members on the Council and Boards, and the identification of government land as waqf. The petitioners, led by Kapil Sibal and others, argued the law takes control of waqf away from the community. The Union government said waqf is a charitable, secular arrangement and opposed any stay.

The Court: Chief Justice Gavai said repeatedly that laws passed by Parliament carry a presumption of constitutionality and that a strong case was needed for interim relief.

Case moves to Chief Justice Gavai’s bench Supreme Court

What happened: On 5 May Chief Justice Khanna, due to retire within days, said he did not want to reserve an order he would not be in office to deliver, and sent the case to the bench of his successor, B.R. Gavai. The Solicitor General’s assurances were continued. On 15 May the new bench fixed 20 May for arguments on interim relief.

First hearings and the government’s undertaking Supreme Court

16 April: The bench heard the petitions for the first time and raised concerns about waqf by user, non-Muslim members and the Collector’s role, indicating it might pass an interim order. It did not do so that day.

17 April: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the Court that, until the next hearing, no waqf, including waqf by user, would be denotified and no appointments would be made to the Central Waqf Council or State Boards under the new provisions. The Court recorded this, gave the government a week to reply and asked that the challenge proceed on five lead petitions.

Petitions reach the Supreme Court Supreme Court

Who filed: Petitioners included AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress MP Mohammad Jawed, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, the DMK and others. Several BJP-ruled states asked to intervene in support of the law, according to reports.

The argument: They said the law interferes with the right of a religious denomination to manage its own affairs, singles out Muslim endowments for rules not applied to others, and lets officials decide disputed title. The Union government said it regulates the secular management of property.

The amended Act comes into force Parliament

What happened: The Union government notified the date on which the amendment took effect. The 1995 Act was renamed the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995.

President Droupadi Murmu gives assent Parliament

What happened: The President signed the Bill, along with a companion Bill repealing the Mussalman Wakf Act, 1923. Petitions challenging the new law had already begun to be filed.

Rajya Sabha passes the Bill, 128 to 95 Parliament

What happened: The Rajya Sabha debated the Bill through the day and night of 3 April and passed it in the early hours of 4 April. The opposition parties voted against.

Lok Sabha passes the Bill, 288 to 232 Parliament

What happened: Kiren Rijiju moved the Bill, as revised after the committee, on 2 April. After a debate of about 12 hours, the result was announced just before 2 am on 3 April.

Joint Parliamentary Committee report is tabled Parliament

What happened: The committee, which had adopted amendments proposed by members of the ruling alliance and rejected those moved by the opposition, gave its report to Speaker Om Birla on 30 January and tabled it in both Houses on 13 February. Opposition members filed dissent notes, and there was a dispute in the House over whether parts of their dissent had been left out.

Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 introduced and sent to a committee Parliament

What happened: Kiren Rijiju introduced the Bill in the Lok Sabha. After opposition MPs objected that it was unconstitutional, the government agreed the same day to refer it to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

What it proposed: A new definition of who may create a waqf, an end to new waqf by user, non-Muslim members on waqf bodies, a role for officials in deciding whether a property is government land, a central digital registry and changes to the tribunals.

Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2013 Earlier laws

What happened: Parliament amended the 1995 Act to strengthen protection of waqf property. The changes dealt with encroachment, surveys, the powers of the Boards and the make-up of the Waqf Tribunals, and barred the sale or gift of waqf property.

The Waqf Act, 1995 replaces the 1954 law Earlier laws

What happened: The new Act set out how waqf property is surveyed, registered and recorded, how State Waqf Boards are formed and run, and created Waqf Tribunals to decide disputes. It remained the main law, amended, until 2025.

The first national Waqf Act and the Central Waqf Council Earlier laws

What happened: After independence Parliament passed the Waqf Act, 1954, providing for State Waqf Boards to supervise endowments. The Central Waqf Council was set up in 1964 under that Act to advise the government. The 1954 law was amended several times, including in 1984.

Mussalman Wakf Act, 1923 Earlier laws

What happened: The colonial government required mutawallis, the managers of waqfs, to file statements about the property and keep accounts. It was one of the earliest laws to regulate Muslim endowments.