The WAQF Act of 1995 will now be called the unified WAQF Management, Authorization, Efficiency and Development Act of 2025. This transformation has been nearly three decades because the last bill was supposed to be scrapped in its initiation.
Protesting the WAQF (Amendment) Act
Recent debates on the WAQF Amendment Act have sparked a long-term discussion on the WAQF agency and its legitimacy. This also made the blatant Muslim accusation politics a focus, followed by the country’s so-called secular trusteeship party. Over the past few days, the newsroom has been filled with aid and opposition debates. But, in all of these aspects, what I failed to realize is that this kind of thing is so blatantly arbitrary and opposition to “samajiksamrasta” found support.
Under public review
Also, another thing that I’m confused about is how the other party escapes after passing such harsh legislation. Until now, their actions have not been publicly scrutinized. In any case, this article aims to briefly see the harsh nature of WAQF legislation adopted by the other party, its impact on ordinary people, and the new law aimed at changing the misconduct of previous legislation.
April 4, 2025 is the historical day of the WAQF (Amendment) Act 2025, and Rajya Sabha passed. The WAQF Act of 1995 will now be called the unified WAQF Management, Authorization, Efficiency and Development Act of 2025. This transformation has been nearly three decades because the last bill was supposed to be scrapped in its initiation. The legislation has multiple problems that have affected not only the people of other religions, but also the Muslims.
‘Once it becomes a waqf, it is always a waqf’
The concept of “once Waqf is always WAQF” is arbitrary in itself. Previous legislation gave the WAQF Board of Directors unlimited power. The bill provides the board with the power to declare private property as a WAQF. This has led to multiple illegal occupations. Even the WAQF Tribunal’s ruling cannot be challenged in the High Court. In addition, the WAQF Act only applies to one religion, while other religions do not have similar legislation.
Even for Muslims, there are only Shiites and Sunni WAQF boards, while other denominations do not include them. Procedural deficiencies related to the investigation and the transfer of ownership in the Act. The provisions of legislation are so blatantly biased that one can easily witness the other party’s ruthless politics.
WAQF Board of Directors of Other Denominations
However, the new bill aims to eliminate many of the mistakes in the previous bill. The new bill declares that no government property will be WAQF property. It also allows appeals to the court ruling within 90 days. In addition, it recognizes the WAQF boards of the Bohra and Agakhani sects as well as the Shiite and Sunni sects. In addition, in order to protect people’s property from other religions, the donor of the property must be a practicing Muslim for at least 5 years.
The new bill also makes the WAQF Board of Directors and the Central WAQF Committee include members of the non-Muslim community. The new law attempts to establish a check and balance, which is missing from previous bills. However, to understand the serious consequences of the previous behavior, we need to understand the consequences of the law for normal people.
A land of civilians
The WAQF Board of Directors arbitrarily claimed that there were multiple incidents in the land of ordinary people. In August 2024, WAQF claimed ownership of a village near Patna. Similarly, in September 2022, the WAQF Board claimed ownership of the entire Thiruchendurai village of Trichy, which also owns a 1,500-year-old temple. In August 2023, the WAQF Board claimed ownership of 75 homes affected by floods in the 1980s. Now, the owners of the home cannot transfer property because they need NOC from the WAQF Board of Directors. In addition, in Karnataka, 516 farmers in the Ghada area received WAQF land ownership notice.
Women’s representative, “Pass Motor”
Such incidents clearly demonstrate the pain and struggle that normal villagers must experience due to the unrestricted power given to the WAQF board in the last bill. After such powers in the hands of the WAQF board of directors, the powers were obtained by the personnel who managed the board of directors. In the last bill, neither women nor Pasmada Muslims received sufficient representation on the board, leading to the tendency of Ashrafs to usurpate, which largely held the WAQF board nationwide. This is the main reason why the largest complaint received by the Ministry of Ethnic Minority Affairs against WAQF is received only by Muslims.
Corruption in WAQF Board of Directors?
Additionally, extensive corruption charges have been filed in the WAQF board of directors as there is not much scrutiny. The central government and several state governments have established committees to examine corruption on the WAQF board. The central government has previously established the K Rehman Khan Committee to investigate the WAQF government.
Inappropriate institution?
Similarly, the Sakar Commission’s report recommends changes to the WAQF and claims it is an unusable institution with widespread corruption. The Kerala government established a Naxal Committee in 2007 to investigate corruption on the WAQF board. The committee reported on how the WAQF board mistakenly sold 700 acres. Similarly, in 2012, the Karnataka government formed an Anwar Manipaddy group for WAQF Difference, which reported over 2 million crore rupees in corruption among politicians, land mafia and middlemen.
The new unified WAQF management, authorization, efficiency and development laws should be welcomed by two arms in 2025 as it eliminates the other’s historical errors. Previous behavior is very harmful to the Muslim community and systematically despises it
(Akshat Gupta is Amazon’s best-selling bilingual writer born in Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, currently based in Mumbai. He is also the most watched author online. Akshat is the creator of the acclaimed trilogy, the creator of the Hidden Hindus, which seamlessly blends myths and science fiction. The screenwriter and poet have participated in 9 Bollywood movies and 2 web series.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own views and do not reflect the views of DNA)
