New Delhi: One year after the Centre rolled out UMEED, the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development portal, details for 88,571 waqf properties have been rejected following scrutiny, around 11% of the 7,95,784 properties submitted for registration.
Data on the portal show that 5,87,804 properties (74%) were approved for inclusion; the registration process remains incomplete. Uttar Pradesh accounts for the largest share of rejections, with 31,783 properties — nearly 36% of all rejected entries. West Bengal and Rajasthan follow with 14,134 (16%) and 12,080 (13%) rejections respectively.
State waqf board officials said they are unsure of the next steps for properties excluded from the portal. Rejection rates varied across states: Rajasthan recorded 37% of its submissions rejected, Tamil Nadu 26% and Uttar Pradesh 22.23%. In absolute terms, Uttar Pradesh submitted 1,60,857 properties (20.1% of the national total) and West Bengal 1,34,545 (16.9%).
In Uttar Pradesh, where separate Sunni and Shia waqf boards operate, 29,724 of 1.52 lakh Sunni applications were rejected, while 2,059 of 8,171 Shia applications were declined. In Uttarakhand, 455 of 2,468 submissions were rejected. Some mutawallis and board officials say the portal does not clearly display application status and that they have received little guidance on remedies; one mutawalli in Delhi said they were considering legal action, asserting the properties were already registered as waqfs.
UMEED was launched on June 6, 2025, to create a geo-tagged digital inventory of waqf properties, with details to be uploaded within six months. When the initial deadline expired on December 5, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said there would be no penalties for non-compliance and that waqf tribunals could grant extensions; several state tribunals subsequently extended deadlines. Some states’ extended deadlines have already passed.
The portal’s three-stage registration process requires initiation by the mutawalli (property caretaker), verification by a designated district or state “checker”, and final approval by a senior waqf board “approver.” Several waqf board CEOs said they have requested more time from the Centre to complete uploads but have received no response.
Ministry of Minority Affairs officials said variations in rejection rates reflect differences in land-record quality, awareness among mutawallis and the volume of waqf properties across states. “The first step has to be taken by mutawallis. Some states have better literacy rates, so their mutawallis are more aware. They started the process on time and hence, the states have done better. Southern states have better legacy data for land records, so they have done well,” a senior ministry officer said.