First meet of Parliament panel on Waqf Bill underway

New Delhi: Parliament’s Joint Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill met here for the first time on Thursday where officials from the minority affairs and law ministries are briefing them 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.

The representatives from the minority affairs ministry were expected to brief the committee on the “amendments proposed on the Bill”, the Lok Sabha secretariat 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 various Muslim bodies representing different sects to hear their views.

The Bill is the first major initiative from the BJP-led NDA government aimed at reforming the registration process for Waqf properties through a centralised portal.

It proposes several reforms, including establishing a Central Waqf Council alongside state Waqf Boards with representation to the Muslim women and non-Muslim representatives.

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 August 8 and referred to a joint committee of Parliament 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.