New Delhi, July 5 -- The Union government on Friday notified the rules that will operationalise the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, focussing largely on the functioning of the central portal where Islamic charitable endowments will be registered and leaving some finer details to the states. The 32-page document issued by the Union ministry of minority affairs is now set to be laid before Parliament during the upcoming monsoon session commencing July 21. HT first reported on June 20 that the rules would be published within 15 days. If Parliament makes any changes, the rules will be published in the gazette again, said a senior ministry official. The rules were framed under Section 108B, which was inserted into the 1995 Waqf Act by the amendments passed earlier this year and which allowed the Centre to make rules for Waqf asset management system, registration, accounts, audit and other details of Waqf, and the manner of payments for maintenance of widow, divorced woman and orphans. The Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) Rules, 2025, primarily operationalised the national UMEED portal launched last month, establishing a centraliseddigital database for waqf properties supervised by the joint secretary of the ministry's waqf division. The rules establish a six-month deadline for uploading all existing waqf properties onto the portal. State governments must publish surveyed lists of auqaf (plural of waqf) and upload them within 90 days of the rules' gazette publication, with possible 90-day extensions requiring stated reasons. One of the most important provisions detailed in the new rules is about the registration of a new waqf. "A waqf created after the commencement of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 shall make an application to the board for its registration under section 36 of the act within three months of its creation," the rules said. The board, in this case, is the Central Waqf Board. The application for registration will have to be made on the portal and needs a description of the property, a copy of waqf deed, gross annual income, amount of land revenue, cesses, rates and taxes annually payable, estimate of the expenses, amount set aside for mutawalli, maintenance for widows, divorced women and orphans,and whether the property stood on protected or government land, among others. "The collector shall inquire the genuineness and validity of the application and the particulars mentioned therein in accordance with the revenue laws.the collector shall submit the report to the board within a period of 60 days," the rules said. This practically invalidates verbal waqf declarations, an age-old and controversial practice. It also effectively scraps the waqf-by-user provision - where a property is acknowledged as waqf because it has been used for religious activities for some time, despite there being no official declaration or registration as waqf - with prospective effect. The rules permit widows, divorced women, and orphans to apply for maintenance from dormant family waqfs (waqf-alal-aulad), requiring identity and residence proofs with payments made electronically. Waqf Boards must maintain electronic registers, publish audit reports online, and disclose board orders within 10 working days. Mutawallis must submit annual accounts electronically by October 1 each year, with the annual contribution to waqf boards capped at one crore rupees. An independent central agency will review the portal annually, and state governments must appoint nodal officers at the joint secretary level. "On filing of the details of waqf and properties thereof by the mutawalli on the portal and database, the chief executive officer or any other officer duly authorised in writing by the board shall.certify the correctness of the information and particulars.within 10 days," the rules said....