The UMEED online registry launched by the Indian government to document waqf properties is struggling to achieve its objectives more than a year after its launch, with large numbers of waqf properties still absent from the database. This has raised concerns over the legal status of mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and religious schools.
The Indian government justified the 2025 Waqf Amendment Act on the grounds that it was needed to establish a centralized and transparent registry of waqf properties and reduce mismanagement and disputes. It launched the UMEED portal in June 2025, giving waqf administrators six months to enter property data.
According to available data, only around 27% of the nearly 870,000 waqf properties had been registered when the initial deadline expired in December 2025. After the deadline was extended, the rate rose to around 62%, representing approximately 540,000 properties, by June 2026.
The figures reveal major disparities between states. Registration reached around 90% in Punjab, 81% in Karnataka, and 77% in Jammu and Kashmir, while West Bengal, which has one of the country’s largest waqf portfolios, recorded a very low rate.
In Uttar Pradesh, which has the largest number of waqf properties, registration of properties belonging to the Sunni Waqf Board stood at only around 11%, compared with approximately 5% for the Shia Waqf Board, highlighting significant challenges in completing the documentation process.
Amid these difficulties, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board called for an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Minority Affairs, citing repeated technical problems with the portal and slow procedures, as well as difficulties faced by waqf administrators in providing official documents for religious properties, some of which date back centuries.
The registration crisis comes as legal challenges to the Waqf Amendment Act continue. In September 2025, the Indian Supreme Court temporarily suspended the implementation of some of its provisions, while cases related to the law and waqf administration remain before the courts.
The developments have raised particular concerns over properties historically recognized as waqf through longstanding religious use without formal title deeds. Such properties may face greater difficulties in establishing their legal status under the new registration requirements.
Critics of the new system argue that the continued large gaps in the UMEED registry, particularly in some states with vast numbers of waqf properties, undermine the portal’s ability to achieve its primary purpose and leave the future of a number of Muslim properties in a state of legal uncertainty.
