Joint parliamentary committee begins review of Waqf Bill

The joint parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing the Waqf (Amendment) Bill met for the first time on Thursday, 22 August, with officials from the minority affairs and law ministries called to brief members about the various amendments proposed in the draft law.

The 31-member committee, headed by BJP member Jagdambika Pal, has been tasked by the Lok Sabha to scrutinise the contentious bill, which has drawn protests from the opposition parties and Muslim organisations.

Representatives of the ministry of minority affairs were expected to brief the committee on the "amendments proposed on the Bill", the Lok Sabha secretariat had said.

The JPC will discuss the bill threadbare and also the concerns over it, Pal said ahead of the meeting, adding that voices of different stakeholders will be heard by the committee.

"We will discuss all the 44 amendments and bring a good and comprehensive Bill by next session," he said.

Pal said the committee will call on various Muslim bodies representing different sects to hear their views as well.

This bill is being positioned as the first major initiative by the BJP-led NDA government to 'reform' the registration and administration of waqf properties through a centralised portal.

It proposes several changes to the existing rules governing waqf properties, the Central Waqf Council and the state waqf boards — including representation for Muslim women as well as adding non-Muslim administrative members.

A contentious provision of the bill is the proposal to designate the district collector as the primary authority in determining whether a property is classified as waqf or government land.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 8 August and referred to a joint parliamentary committee after a heated debate, with the government asserting that the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques and the opposition calling it a targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.