With December 6 being the last day for registering waqf institutions and uploading relevant documents on the UMEED portal, the Telangana State Waqf Board (TGWB) said on Saturday that it had approached the Waqf Tribunal seeking a six-month extension of the deadline.
Speaking to The Hindu, TGWB Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Asadullah said, “We had decided to approach the Waqf Tribunal to seek an extension. We have filed our application on Saturday, and will diligently follow up.” The Board, he added, was hopeful of a favourable order.
The six-month extension has been sought under Section 3B of the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025. The Board has cited persistent technical issues with the UMEED portal, including frequent slowdowns and outages, which have delayed registrations. While a large number of properties have been registered on the portal by “makers”, the process of verification by “checkers” and final approval by “approvers” remains incomplete. The extension has also been sought to enable the collection of historical documents from the Qutb Shahi and Asaf Jahi periods that describe the nature of institutions and their properties as waqf.
At around 7 p.m. on Saturday, the TGWB said that as many as 45,150 waqf institutions had been registered on the portal, with the number expected to rise marginally by midnight. The registration of institutions covered in the first survey (over 33,900) has been completed. About 400 institutions from the second survey have also been registered.
Registrations of institutions under the erstwhile Nizam’s Umoor-e-Mazhabi (Ecclesiastical Department), around 3,800, are under way, of which about 200 have been registered so far. However, a large number of old and prominent institutions are yet to be registered.
Meanwhile, confusion over the last date of registration prevailed on the intervening night of December 5 and 6. Board officials and members of the public admitted that they were unsure of the exact deadline. An official, requesting anonymity, said the staff had been closely monitoring whether the UMEED portal would remain functional or stop accepting registrations after 12.01 am on December 6. It was only after the portal was found to be working that officials heaved a sigh of relief.
Registrations have also been happening at other locations such as the Jama Masjid near Uppal Stadium, and Shahi Masjid at Public Gardens. At both these places of worship, volunteers have been assisting applicants with the registration.
Published – December 06, 2025 09:17 pm IST
