NEW DELHI: The joint parliamentary committee reviewing the Waqf Amendment Bill-2024 on Monday finalised the draft law accepting 32 changes mooted by the ruling dispensation members in 14 clauses of the Bill and rejecting proposals for changes in 44 clauses by opposition MPs.
Sources said the opposition MPs moved over 500 amendments on Monday. The final draft report will be adopted on Wednesday when the Congress, TMC, DMK and the AIMIM will submit dissenting notes. DMK’s A Raja said he would move court against the draft Bill with the joint opposition terming the final draft law as “draconian” despite a review by the JPC.
At the meeting on Monday, opposition MPs are learnt to have accused JPC chief Jagdambika Pal of subverting the parliamentary process — a charge he refuted saying every amendment was put to vote and those of the NDA MPs were carried by a majority of 16 votes to 10 while changes mooted by the others were rejected by the same majority number.
One concession the ruling dispensation MPs appear to have made to the original Bill pertains to withdrawing the clause that said district collector would decide in case of a dispute between the nature of property — Waqf or government. The new amendment moved by BJP’s Brij Lal said the state could notify any officer above the rank of DC for the purpose.
Another apparent concession involves retention of the concept “Waqf by use” (when a property is deemed waqf due to years of use for Muslim religious purposes) which the original Bill introduced in Parliament last year did not have.
An amendment by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey said “Waqf by user” concept would hold for Waqf properties, except when these were in dispute or were government facilities. This amendment also said such existing “Waqf by use” properties must be registered before the new law came into force. This change was expected to benefit shopkeepers in areas like Old Delhi who had been operating business from properties left behind by Muslims who went to Pakistan and later claimed by Waqf.
But there were problematic amendments also, opposition MPs said. One amendment accepted on Monday said the Waqf board might have even four non-Muslim members instead of two (as the original Bill said).
“Two of the total members of the Board appointed under this sub-section, excluding ex-officio members, shall be non-Muslim,” said one amendment. The original Bill doesn’t mention the term “excluding ex-officio members”.
Further, the original Bill said only a person practising Islam for five years could declare a Waqf. Another amendment accepted on Monday said such a person should also be demonstrating that he or she was practising Islam for five years — a move opposition MPs termed discriminatory. They asked, “How does one prove one is a practising Muslim?”
Later in a statement, the opposition members said, “The law proposed by the committee in its report would maintain the Bill’s draconian character and the bid to interfere in the religious affairs of Muslims… We have registered our protest.”
The statement was signed by Kalyan Banerjee, Asaduddin Owaisi, A Raja, Gaurav Gogoi, Naseer Hussain, Mohibullah, Imran Masood, MM Abdulla, Mod Jawed, Arvind Sawant and Nadimul Haque.