The Supreme Court on Saturday sought the Centre’s response to a plea filed by the Kerala Waqf Board seeking an extension of time to upload details of nearly 25,000 of the 60,000 Waqf properties in the state onto a centralised portal maintained by the Centre.
The top court was inclined to extend the time by four months. “Four months will be sufficient. We will issue a notice to the Central government. Senior advocate V Chitambaresh, along with advocate KR Subhash Chandran, appeared for the Kerala Waqf Board.
Under the statute, the time expired on May 17, 2026, precisely a year after the Act came into force. The high court, on July 8, granted only a one-month extension. It also cited a recent precedent in which the Delhi High Court, in April this year, allowed the Delhi Waqf Board a further extension of six months to upload the data onto the UMEED portal, along with a direction to the Union government to open the portal from May 15 until November 14.
Since there is a restriction under the statute, their response is necessary,” it said. Chitambaresh said that the number of Waqf properties in Kerala is significantly large, and citing this, the board had sought an extension of time from the Kerala High Court.
