New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Friday set up a 21-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to examine the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which will submit its report by the end of the first week when Parliament convenes next, people aware of the matter said on Friday.
The motion for the cross-party panel was moved by Union minister of parliamentary affairs and minority affairs Kiren Rijiju.
The Bill, introduced by Rijiju in Lok Sabha on Thursday, seeks to bring changes to the powers of state waqf boards, survey of waqf properties and removal of encroachments by amending the Waqf Act, 1995.
A waqf is a Muslim religious endowment, usually in the form of landed property, made for purposes of charity and community welfare. Rijiju also introduced the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, 2024, which seeks to repeal the Mussalman Wakf Act, 1923.
“I give notice of my intention to move the following motion during the current session of the House…That the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 be referred to a joint committee of the Houses with the following members,” the notice moved by the minister said.
Lok Sabha members nominated by the government to the cross-party panel include All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi, who fiercely opposed the bill, and Congress members Gaurav Gogoi and Imran Masood, apart from Jagdambika Pal, Nishikant Dubey, Tejasvi Surya, Aparajita Sarangi, Sanjay Jaiswal, Dilip Saikia, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, DK Aruna, Mohammad Jawed, Maulana Mohibullah Nadvi, Kalyan Banerjee, A Raja, Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Dileshwar Kamait, Arvind Sawant, Suresh Gopinath, Naresh Ganpat Mhaske, and Arun Bharti.
In Rajya Sabha, Rijiju proposed the names of 10 lawmakers from the upper house for the JPC, including Brij Lal, Dr. Medha Vishram Kulkarni, Gulam Ali, Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, Syed Naseer Hussain, Mohammed Nadeem Ul Haq, V Vijayasai Reddy, M. Mohamed Abdulla, Sanjay Singh, and Dr Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade.
“With this bill, there is no interference in the freedom of any religious body….Forget about taking anyone’s rights, this bill has been brought to give rights to those who never got them….” Rijiju said while introducing the bill.
The Opposition accused the government of violating the right to freedom of religion. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the bill was being introduced to appease the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hardcore supporters. “What is the point of including non-Muslims in Waqf boards when this is not done in other religious bodies?” Yadav asked.
The draft bill proposes sweeping changes in the regulation and governance of India’s waqf boards, which manage Islamic charitable endowments. The government argues that the bill would modernise an archaic and complex system in line with recommendations of the 2006 Rajender Sachar Committee.
The bill reworks the definition of waqf to ensure that only lawful property owners practising Islam for at least five years can create waqf through formal deeds.
The role of surveying waqf properties, handled by survey commissioners under the 1995 act, is now to be entrusted to district collectors or officers of equivalent rank to bring about transparency.
The most controversial provision is a proposal to induct non-Muslims in the central waqf council, state waqf boards, and waqf tribunals, calling for such bodies to become “more broad-based,” with representation of Shia, Sunni, Bohra, Agakhani, and other Muslim sects, along with non-Muslims.
Additionally, the bill mandates the registration of all waqf properties through a central portal, creating a comprehensive national database.
