Waqf Board constituted in Puducherry after 11 years

Puducherry forms a new Waqf Board after 11 years, featuring a diverse seven-member team led by V.P. Abdul Rahman.

The Puducherry government has constituted a Waqf Board in the Union Territory (UT) after a gap of 11 years.

Days ahead of the Assembly poll announcement, the ruling AINRC-BJP combine has issued a notification constituting the seven-member Waqf Board, which includes two non-Muslim members, with AINRC member V.P. Abdul Rahman as chairperson. 

The board has been constituted as per the provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025, which empowers the administration to include two non-Muslims as its members.

Mr. Rahman, a former Congressman and a recognised scholar in Islamic theology, hails from the Mahe region. One of the non-Muslim members included in the board is former BJP president and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) S. Selvaganbathy. 

The other members of the board include senior DMK leader and Member of the Legislative Assembly A.M.H. Nazeem. The members will hold office for a period of five years. The tenure of the previous Waqf Board had ended in 2015.

Reacting to the development, AIADMK, an ally of the AINRC-BJP in Puducherry, said the previous Congress government had failed to constitute the Waqf Board though the party always claimed to be “a champion for the cause of the Muslim community.”