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Informist, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024

 

NEW DELHI - The Lok Sabha Thursday extended the deadline for the Joint Parliamentary Committee to submit its report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 till the last day of the Budget Session. The House adopted the resolution moved by the panel Chairman Jagdambika Pal seeking more time for the submission of the report.

 

The motion was adopted amid ruckus by the opposition members seeking a discussion on the allegations against industrialist Gautam Adani's indictment in the US court and also over the recent violence in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. The JPC was mandated to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the end of the first week of the Winter Session. Parliament's Winter Session started Monday and is scheduled to end on Dec. 20.

 

Bharatiya Janata Party member Jagdambika Pal, who chairs the JPC on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, told reporters on Wednesday that the committee was unanimous in its view to seek more time as it has to listen to some other stakeholders, including six states, where there are disputes between the waqf and the state governments.

 

"We still have to invite and listen to other stakeholders and state officials from six states where there are disputes between waqf (boards) and state governments," Pal told reporters Wednesday after a meeting of the panel. "Regarding 123 properties, there is a dispute between the government of India, the Urban Development Ministry, and Waqf boards. So we felt the need to extend the committee's tenure."

 

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill which seeks to amend the Waqf Act, 1995, for "effective management" of assets and administration of waqf properties, was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Aug. 8.

 

The bill mandates non-Muslim members in State Waqf Boards and Central Waqf Council. The bill further seeks to omit Section 40 of the act, which empowered Waqf Boards to decide if a property was a waqf property. It also seeks to streamline the registration of waqfs through a central portal and database, and makes it mandatory to file within six months details of the waqf and the property dedicated to it. The provision will have a retrospective effect.

 

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance has opposed the Bill and alleged that it was framed without consulting the stakeholders. Opposition leaders have called it anti-Muslim, against cooperative federalism, and politically motivated. The Opposition also alleged that the bill violates the constitutional right to freedom of religion.  End

 

Reported by Shahid K. Abbas

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

 

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