Section 83 Acts as an Enabling Provision and Does Not Grant Omnibus Jurisdiction

Section 83 of the Waqf Act, 1995, which bears the heading 'Constitution of Tribunals, etc.', is fundamentally a procedural and enabling provision that empowers the State Government to constitute Waqf Tribunals and define their local limits of jurisdiction. It does not, by itself, operate as an independent, expansive, or omnibus conferment of subject-matter jurisdiction on the Tribunal over any and every dispute vaguely touching upon a waqf or waqf property. The general phrase "for the determination of any dispute, question or other matter relating to a waqf or waqf property" in Section 83(1) is explicitly qualified by the statutory words "under this Act," meaning that the dispute or matter must be one that is specifically assigned to or required to be determined by the Tribunal under concrete substantive provisions of the Act. Interpreting Section 83 as granting unrestricted, all-encompassing power independent of specific statutory provisions would render the carefully framed jurisdictional boundaries in Sections 6, 7, 54, and 85 redundant and unworkable. (Habib Alladin & Ors. v. Mohammed Ahmed | 2026 INSC 90)