After the passage of Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 from Parliament, the Uttar Pradesh government has launched a special campaign for the identity and verification of Waqf properties across the state. The government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed all the District Magistrates to identify the illegal properties of Waqf in their respective areas and prepare their records.
Number of Waqf properties
According to the data of 2014, Uttar Pradesh Waqf Board has a total of 1,24,720 properties:
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Sunni Waqf Board: 1,19,451 properties
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Shia Waqf Board: 5,269 properties
Status of Waqf properties in the capital Lucknow
The Waqf Board in Lucknow has a total of 3,072 assets:
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Sunni Waqf Board: 2,386
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Shia Waqf Board: 686
However, according to the Revenue Department, most of the properties on which the Waqf Board is claiming does not have any valid documents or revenue records.
Status in Sambhal district
In Sambhal district, 2,533 of Sunni Waqf Board and 430 of Shia Waqf Board are officially registered. Despite this, the Waqf Board has claimed 1,150 government properties, which have a total area of about 256.11 hectares. The District Magistrate has identified these properties.
Bada Imambara, Chhota Imambara and government-wakef disputes
The biggest controversy in Lucknow is about Bada Imambara, Chhota Imambara and Begum Hazrat Mahal Park. The Shia Waqf Board claims that these three assets are his and Waqf property should be declared under 37.
However, Om Prakash Rajbhar, Minority Welfare Minister of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, had clarified that no concrete documents were submitted by the Shia Waqf Board regarding these properties during the Waqf survey. Therefore, the situation remains vague about the ownership of these properties.
Facts related to Imambara
The Shia religious leader Maulana Kalbe Jawwad Namaz is often performed at the Ashifi Mosque located in the Bada Imambara campus. Currently, this property is under Hussainabad Trust, whose receiver is the District Magistrate of Lucknow.
Historically it is said that the Nawab added provisions while handing over these properties to the trust that they would be operated by the administration. For this reason, the district administration has control over them.
The flower market, which is located near the Bada Imambara, was illegally occupied, which was removed by the government a few months ago through bulldozer action.
What next?
The assets worth crores of rupees related to the Hussainabad Trust, including the large and small Imambara, are owned by Waqf or the government, it will now be clear only after the new Waqf law is implemented.
This case is not limited to Lucknow only, but similar dispute and investigation process is going on in other districts of the state.
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