Has This SC Ruling Deemed Waqf Properties Invalid? No, Claim Is False!

Upon checking the original article and court document, we found no mention of the Waqf Board.

Fact-Check: This judgement is not related to the Waqf Board in any manner. 

(Source: The Quint) 

A screenshot of a news article from the legal news outlet Live Law is circulating on social media, claiming that the Supreme Court has ruled the properties belonging to the Waqf Board as "illegal and invalid."

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false.

• The original story made no reference to the Waqf Board. The SC ruling mentioned in the article does not pertain to Waqf property.

• A lawyer at the Allahabad High Court confirmed the same to The Quint.

What we found: At first, we went through the report by Live Law, published on 8 January which is mentioned in the claim. We found no mention of the Waqf Board in the entire report.

• The report covers the SC ruling concerning a case involving one Sanjay Sharma (Appellant) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (Respondent).

• Live Law stated that the case involved a property that was auctioned publicly.

• The report states that the court remarked in this regard, "The Supreme Court has reiterated that the ownership of an immovable property does not get transferred until the sale deed is registered. Mere transfer of possession and payment of consideration will not transfer ownership, unless the sale deed is registered."(sic.)

• This means that one cannot own the property simply after the transfer of payment and proprietorship. It is only owned once the sale deed is registered for the same.

• We also went through the the seventeen-page court judgement which also had no mention of the Waqf Board or its properties.

• The Quint contacted Areeb Uddin Ahmed, a lawyer practicing at the Allahabad HC who dismissed the viral claim.

• He said, "There is no direct or indirect reference to Waqf or Waqf properties whatsoever." He added that the use of the term "only" signified that the sale for tangible immovable property valued at ₹100 or more is lawful only when registered.

Additional context: These posts come at a time when the operations of the Waqf Board and its authority are presently being examined under a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which is in the final phase of discussions between 24 January and 25 January to review the 44 provisions of the bill. Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proposed modifications to this by presenting an amendment bill in August 2024.

Conclusion: A false claim has gone viral that the SC has declared the properties belonging to the Waqf Board as "illegal and invalid."

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