countries, where these properties are used to house and operate schools, orphanages, hospitals, banks and graveyards. The properties in India are managed by waqf boards formed by different state governments. A federal organisation called the Central Waqf Council coordinates their functioning.

But thousands of these land tracts, worth billions of rupees, have been mired in legal disputes across the country for decades. For instance, in India's capital Delhi, there are more than a thousand of these properties, including mosques, graveyards and mausoleums. Emblems of the city's centuries-old Islamic heritage, they have been used for religious, educational and charitable purposes to benefit the community. At least 123 of them are locked in long-running ownership disputes between the city's waqf board and the federal government. They form just a fraction of thousands of such cases fought by waqf boards across India against private parties - Muslims and non-Muslims - as well as government departments. It is one of the challenges that the federal government claims will be resolved through the new law, called the Waqf Amendment Act 2025, which has brought in dozens of changes to the existing system.

Many Muslim leaders and opposition parties have criticised the law, calling it an attempt to weaken the rights of minorities, and it has sparked protests and violence in some states. India's Supreme Court has also begun hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the law. Waqf disputes stem from a number of reasons - unclear land titles, oral declarations of properties as waqf, inconsistent laws, collusion with land mafias and years of official neglect. Government data shows that of 872,852 waqf properties in India (on paper), at least 13,200 are entangled in legal battles, 58,889 have been encroached upon and more than 436,000 have unclear status. (BBC/Getty Images)