Members of the parliamentary panel suggest 572 amendments to Waqf bill

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Members of the parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill have suggested 572 amendments to the draft legislation that has the government and the opposition at loggerheads, reported news agency PTI.

The consolidated list of amendments was circulated by the Joint Committee on Waqf bill, chaired by BJP leader Jagdambika Pal, late Sunday as the panel's hearing entered the last lap, reported PTI.

The Committee will discuss the clause-by-clause amendments at its meeting on Monday.

Members of the BJP and those from the opposition have submitted amendments to the Waqf bill. However, none of the BJP's allies figure in the list of members who have submitted the amendments, reported PTI.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was referred to the joint committee of Parliament on August 8 following its introduction in the Lok Sabha by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.

The Waqf bill aims to amend the Waqf Act of 1995, to address issues and challenges in regulating and managing Waqf properties.

Oppn MPs write to LS Speaker to conduct JPC proceedings fairly, postpone next meet on Waqf bill

Opposition members in the Joint Committee of Parliament on Waqf Amendment bill on Friday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to instruct the panel's chairman Jagdambika Pal for not rushing through the proceedings and postpone the panel's meeting slated on January 27.

The panel members, some of whom were earlier suspended from the committee for a day for creating unruly scenes, said they were only raising their demand for postponing the scheduled meeting and demanded a probe under Supreme Court supervision on the chairman allegedly "acting at the behest" of higher-ups.

They also urged the Speaker to instruct Pal to hold the JPC meetings in a fair and transparent manner without departure from rules and procedure.

"It is therefore prayed that the Chairman of the JPC may kindly be instructed to conduct the proceedings in a transparent and fair manner. The Chairman should postpone the 27th meeting so that the opposition members can get the adequate time and opportunity to put forth our plea/claims without any departure from the rules and procedure to ensure the Parliament democracy on which the Nation still has faith," the opposition members said in a three-page letter signed by all of them.

The suspended members are Kalyan Banerjee and Nadeem-ul Haque (Trinamool Congress), Mohammad Jawed, Imran Masood and Syed Naseer Hussain (Congress), A Raja and Mohamed Abdullah (DMK), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), Mohibullah (SP) and Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT).

The members, in their letter to Birla, said the amendments proposed in the Waqf bill are not only "connected with the huge land banks of the Waqf boards across the country, but also relevant to the judicial pronouncements of the high courts /Supreme Court thereon; and statutes and rules enacted by various state governments in this regard are also in challenge whereby conflict of interest has arisen thereto".

(With inputs from PTI)