Waqf law after the 2025 amendment: Council, Boards and Tribunals
Why in news: On 29 October 2026, Delhi's government told the Delhi High Court its Waqf Tribunal, idle since April 2022, would likely be notified within four weeks.
Waqfs are properties dedicated for ever to purposes Muslim law treats as pious, religious or charitable. Under the Waqf Act, 1995, State Waqf Boards administer them, the Central Waqf Council advises and Waqf Tribunals settle disputes. On 29 October 2026, the Delhi government told the High Court it would likely notify its Tribunal, idle since 2022, within four weeks.
Syllabus: GS2 · Separation of Powers; Prelims · Polity & Governance; GS2 · Statutory & Regulatory Bodies
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 polity: statutory bodies and tribunals under the Waqf Act, 1995. Prelims can ask who sits on a Waqf Tribunal; Mains, the 2025 amendment and its judicial review.
In short
A waqf is property dedicated permanently to pious, religious or charitable purposes under Muslim law; the Waqf Act, 1995, recast in 2025, governs it through three statutory tiers.
The law works only when its Tribunals sit: States must notify them promptly, while the Supreme Court's final ruling settles the 2025 design.
Why it matters
A shopkeeper renting a waqf property, and the mutawalli who collects that rent, cannot take a quarrel over it to an ordinary civil court. When the Tribunal is not sitting, their case waits or goes straight to the High Court, and rent meant for a mosque, a school or a charity can stop meanwhile. The 2025 changes reach every mutawalli too: records must go on a central portal, and revenue officers now check claims over government land. The Supreme Court's final ruling will settle how far a religious endowment's self-management gives way to state checks on land records, and so who can rely on the record of a disputed plot.
Prelims pointers
- The Central Waqf Council has 22 members, including three MPs (two from the Lok Sabha, one from the Rajya Sabha) and two former Supreme Court or High Court Judges.
- A State Waqf Board includes one MP and one member of the State Legislature, a Bar Council member and the State's Joint Secretary for waqf, ex officio.
- The Waqf Act, 1995 does not apply to the Durgah Khawaja Saheb, Ajmer, which has its own law, the Durgah Khawaja Saheb Act, 1955.
- The Central Government sets up the Central Waqf Council by notification; each State government sets up its own Waqf Board and notifies its Waqf Tribunals.
- A Waqf Tribunal is deemed a civil court with powers under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and its decision binds the parties like a civil court's decree.
- No land of Scheduled Tribe members under the Fifth or Sixth Schedule can be declared waqf, and a waqf declaration over a protected monument is void.
- Since 2025 Collectors, not Survey Commissioners, survey waqfs, and any survey pending before a Survey Commissioner passes to the Collector.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the bodies under the Waqf Act, 1995, consider the following statements:
1. The Central Waqf Council decides disputes over waqf property that the State Waqf Boards refer to it.
2. A State Waqf Board is a body corporate with perpetual succession that can sue and be sued.
3. Waqf Tribunals are constituted by the Central Government through a notification in the Official Gazette.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (b) 2 only
Answer: (b) 2 only. Only the Board statement holds; the Council advises and the States constitute Tribunals.
Statement 1: incorrect. The Central Waqf Council advises the Centre, the States and the Boards and may issue directives to Boards; Waqf Tribunals decide disputes.
Statement 2: correct. The Waqf Act, 1995 makes each Board a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal that sues and is sued by its name.
Statement 3: incorrect. The State Government constitutes Waqf Tribunals by notification in the Official Gazette and defines their local limits and jurisdiction.
Eliminate: Statement 3 is incorrect because the State Government, not the Centre, notifies the Tribunals. Out: (c), (d).
Eliminate: Statement 1 is incorrect because the Council is advisory and decides no disputes. Out: (a).
Trap: Swapped attribution. Statement 3 hands the State's power to notify Tribunals to the Centre, and statement 1 gives the Tribunal's role to the advisory Council.
Remember: Council advises, Board administers, Tribunal adjudicates; States notify Tribunals.
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