The Centre on Friday said there has been a 116% rise in land controlled by waqf boards across the country after the amendment in Waqf Act in 2013, and flagged “misuse” of waqf provisions to encroach upon private and government properties.
According to data furnished along with the Centre’s counter-affidavit on Thursday, in response to the petitions challenging the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, waqf boards across the country own a total of 8,72,870 properties on a total area of 39,02,476.356 acres “as on date”. “It is really shocking to know that after the (Waqf) amendment brought in the year 2013, there is a 116% rise in auqaf area.”
“In other words, till 2013 [the period includes Mughal era, pre-Independence era and post-Independence era], the total area of waqf created was 18,29,163.896 acres of land. It is really shocking to note that after 2013, the addition of waqf lands is 20,92,072.563 acres in just 11 years”, thus totalling more than 39 lakh acres, the Centre said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Auqaf Board had just one waqf property of 0.4199 acres till 2013. It added 32,532 more properties taking the total to 31,405.53075 acres. The Jharkhand State (Sunni) Waqf Board had no property till 2013; it added 698 more on 1,085.16284 acres after that, the Centre said.
Tamil Nadu had the most — 43,623 — waqf properties till 2013. Kerala State Waqf Board had 23,092 properties till 2013 and added 30,303 thereafter, taking the total land area to 36,995.47248 acres.
The Delhi Waqf Board had 9 properties on 0.03698 acres till 2013; it added 1,038 more on 28.04889 acres after that.
Across India, there were 2,07,394 waqf properties till 2013; 6,65,476 more properties were added between 2014 and 2025, a 320.9% increase, the affidavit shows.
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The government said these “are the figures which are uploaded by the respective waqfs and Waqf Boards voluntarily on WAMSI (Waqf Management System of India) Portal”. It added that “a window of 6 months is given to file details of waqfs on the portal and database under Section 3B (of the Act). Once the updation takes place as per amended Section 3B, the figures will go substantially higher”.
The counter-affidavit added that “as per data received by the Joint (Parliamentary) Committee, till September 5, 2024, from 25 out of 32 cities/Union Territories waqf boards, a total of 5,975 government properties have been declared waqf properties”.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Board of Waqfs tops India’s list of waqf owners with 2,17,161 properties on 6,84,235.8033 acres under its control, followed by West Bengal Board of Waqfs with 80,808 properties on 82,150.55829 acres, according to the data furnished by the Centre.
The Punjab Waqf Board has 75,965 properties on 61,792.65803 acres, followed by the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board with 66,092 properties on 651573.896 acres and Karnataka State Board of Auqaf with 62,830 properties on 5,52,514.9736 acres.