The illegal encroachment and arbitrary claiming of properties of common people alongside government land by Waqf Boards has been a significant menace across various states in India. Thousands of properties, from sprawling acres across various districts of Uttar Pradesh to entire villages in Tamil Nadu are illegally occupied or have been claimed by Waqf Boards as its properties.
In a report prepared by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on district-wise data on Waqf properties in Uttar Pradesh, it has been stated that Ayodhya, Shahjahanpur, Rampur, Jaunpur and Bareilly districts have the maximum number of illegal Waqf properties on encroached government land, reported Amar Ujala. In each of these districts, Waqf boards are claiming two thousand or more properties. In the revenue records, these lands are in the category of public use. The JPC has submitted its report to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.
There are 2589 properties registered in Shahjahanpur in the records of the Waqf Board, out of which 2371 are government properties. 2363 out of 3365 Waqf properties in Rampur, 2116 out of 3652 in Ayodhya, 2096 out of 4167 in Jaunpur and 2000 out of 3499 Waqf properties in Bareilly are located on government land.
As per the Amar Ujala report, there are a total of 57792 government properties in the state, which are registered as Waqf properties in the records of the Waqf Board. Waqf’s claim on government properties has also been found in the top 21 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The JPC report says that there are 1792 properties in Lakhimpur Kheri, 1778 in Bulandshahr, 1610 in Fatehpur, 1581 in Sitapur, 1575 in Azamgarh, 1497 in Saharanpur, 1471 in Moradabad, 1331 in Pratapgarh, 1293 in Agra, 1216 in Aligarh, 1251 in Ghazipur, 1154 in Meerut, 1150 in Sambhal, 1045 in Amroha, 1027 in Deoria and 1005 in Bijnor that are claimed as ‘Waqf property’, but are actually on government land.
Waqf board says ‘our property’, but no documents to show transfer on tehsil records
The report says that there are 40 such districts in the state where hundreds of Waqf properties are registered in the records of the Waqf boards, but there is not a single document on transfer of property in the tehsil records. These districts are Firozabad, Mainpuri, Mathura, Aligarh, Etah, Kasganj, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Ballia, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Siddharthnagar, Bahraich, Balrampur, Gonda, Shravasti, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Auraiya, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Kanpur Dehat, Hardoi, Rae Bareli, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Bijnor, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Chandauli, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Mahoba.
Notably, in Mahoba, the Waqf Board have no record of any Waqf property in Mahoba and just one in Sonabhadra. However, the district-level gazette shows 245 properties in Mahoba and 171 properties in Sonbhadra as waqf.
Last month, a government-ordered survey in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur revealed that there are 1670 Waqf properties in the district. Of these, 548 are built on government land. As per the survey report, there are 914 properties under the Sunni Waqf Board and 34 under the Shia Waqf Board in the Sadar tehsil. In Ghatampur 189, 388 in Bilhaur, and 144 in Narwal. Most of the illegal waqf properties on government land are mosques, graveyards, shrines and mausoleums. The report said that 80% of these illegal waqf properties are used for Islamic religious purposes.
The governments of various states have been conducting surveys to identify waqf properties. Recently, it was revealed in a survey that in Rajasthan, the ownership of land of 69 temples most of which are ancient, is with the Waqf Board in government records. Most of these properties are in Bharatpur, Jhalawar, and Alwar. It was reported that these temples stand on 59 ‘Waqf properties’ across 20 districts in the state.
In December 2024, the Central government said that there are 8.72 lakh Waqf immovable properties across the country. Out of these, 994 properties have been transferred to Waqf in an illegal manner. Out of these 994 properties, 734 are in Tamil Nadu only. There are 63 such properties in Rajasthan. The government said that the Parliament that out of 8.72 lakh Waqf properties across the country, only 3.3 lakh have been digitized. That means only 37% of the country’s Waqf properties have been digitized.
