Advocate Tahir Hakim has filed a significant application before the Gujarat State Waqf Tribunal on behalf of Jamiate Ulema Hind (Vadodara), the Tandalja Development Council, and numerous other Auqaf and Mutawallis across the state, seeking a six-month extension for the mandatory online registration of Waqf properties on the Central Government’s UMEED portal. The petition, moved under Section 3(b) of the Waqf Act, 1995, comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s refusal to extend the national deadline, directing applicants instead to approach state tribunals for relief. Submitted as a representative application, it has been filed on behalf of all Auqaf in Gujarat, since the challenges faced are uniform across districts and a collective approach would prevent multiple proceedings and ensure consistent relief for everyone affected. The Union of India, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Gujarat State Waqf Board, and the State Nodal Agency responsible for the UMEED portal have been named as respondents.
The petition emphasises that timely compliance became “objectively impossible” due to persistent and widespread failures in the centralised UMEED system. Applicants, along with the Gujarat State Waqf Board, repeatedly documented a series of technical defects that made registration unattainable. The portal frequently ran extremely slowly, timed out during uploads, erased previously entered data, and rejected documents without explanation. Entire villages, towns, and even a whole district—Aravalli—were missing from its geographical fields, making it impossible for many Auqaf to even begin the process. The Maker-Checker module, which is critical for verification, remained largely non-functional, as Board officials could not view uploaded documents or access the mandatory “Approve” or “Reject” options. These technical breakdowns, occurring throughout the compliance window, left hundreds of Auqaf unable to complete even the initial stages of registration.
Administrative delays compounded these problems. Many Auqaf struggled to gather old statutory records such as Public Trust Registers, Revenue Records, and Audit Reports, not because they lacked them, but because government departments had not synchronised their procedures with the new digital system. The Gujarat State Waqf Board, responsible for issuing PTR copies across districts, could not provide several of these documents until late November 2025, leaving institutions with no way to complete the documentation requirements for the UMEED portal. The petition argues that insisting on strict statutory compliance under such circumstances—where state systems remained unprepared—would be arbitrary, inequitable, and contrary to basic principles of fairness.
In their plea, the applicants ask the Tribunal to recognise the correct start date for compliance as either July 3, 2025, when the UMEED Rules were first notified, or November 17, 2025, the point at which the last major technical issues were officially reported as resolved. They also request that the operative date for areas such as Modasa in Aravalli district reflect the actual date on which their towns and villages were added to the portal, since many were missing for months. The petition seeks a uniform six-month extension for all Auqaf across Gujarat and urges the Tribunal to direct the authorities to promptly rectify all technical and structural flaws in the UMEED portal. It further requests that any adverse action, penalties, de-registration processes, or disqualification of Mutawallis arising from non-registration be stayed until the matter is decided.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, established in 1919, remains one of India’s oldest and most prominent Muslim organisations committed to safeguarding the social, religious, and legal rights of the community and regularly pursuing cases before the High Courts and Supreme Court. The Tandalja Development Council represents numerous Auqaf and Mutawallis in Gujarat and plays a key role in supporting community-level governance and welfare. Together with other applicants, their petition before the Tribunal highlights a growing concern about the gaps between policy mandates and the practical challenges of digital compliance. The Tribunal’s ruling is expected to have wide implications for thousands of Waqf properties across Gujarat and may shape how similar issues are addressed in other states grappling with the same portal-related failures.
