Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a writ petition filed by a Waqf Muttawalli of Madhya Pradesh alleging technical glitches in the UMEED Portal of Central Government for uploading Waqf property details.
The petition challenged the enforceability of the digital uploading mandate under Section 3B of the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995, claiming the UMEED Portal is structurally defective and technologically unfit for registering Waqf properties.
Around 99 per cent of old records are not available for Waqf registration in Madhya Pradesh, the Waqf Board informed the government. The board faced major hurdles uploading property details to the central UMEED portal (Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency & Development) due to severe technical glitches, including the lack of option to convert area measurements (Acre, Bigha, Biswa, Hectare, Sq. Metre, Gaz, Decimal).
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, The petitioner may be well advised to approach the prescribed authority for clarification or addressing of grievances, for which liberty is granted.
SC Advocate Vaibhav Chaudhary, appearing for the petitioner, told Free Press, We submitted that difficulties are more acute in Madhya Pradesh, where almost all Waqfs are Survey and Gazette-notified properties under Sections 4 and 5 of the Waqf Act. The category of Waqf by User rarely exists in the state. However, the UMEED Portal does not permit the entry of Survey or Gazette Waqfs and compels the user to select from modes that are inapplicable in law.
