India, Dec. 6 -- On Thursday evening, the tension was palpable in the cramped office of the Al Momin Legal Aid Foundation in Nalasopara. Phones were buzzing incessantly, people were streaming in for assistance, and some were pulling out pages from sheafs of paper, and placing them before two youngsters punching details into computers at lightning speed.

Speed is of the essence here, as the clock winds down to a December 6 deadline to upload details of registered waqf properties on the government's UMEED portal. Uploading the information is a precursor for digital verification of these properties, made mandatory under the centre's new waqf law.

At the foundation's office, the phone doesn't stop ringing. "One of the calls was from Punjab,...