Members raise questions on provisions of Waqf bill as Parl panel holds first meeting

New Delhi: The Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill held its marathon first meeting on Thursday amid objections by opposition MPs over a host of provisions in the proposed law as the Union minority affairs ministry made a presentation.

Heated words were exchanged at times during the meeting but members from various parties sat through several hours, recording their views on the provisions of the Bill, offering suggestions and seeking clarifications.

The Trinamool Congress' Kalyan Banerjee, Sanjay Singh of AAP, Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and A Raja of the DMK were joined by some other opposition members in raising questions over the need for several clauses, including the move to give more powers to the collector and have non-Muslim members on Waqf boards.

There was a view among the members, some of them said, that the ministry was not "adequately prepared" to address the queries raised in the meeting.

The next meeting of the committee will be held on August 30, a member said.

Committee Chairperson Jagdambika Pal assured the members that the panel would speak to all stakeholders, including various Muslim bodies.

The 31-member committee 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 committee will discuss the Bill threadbare and also the concerns over it, Pal said ahead of the meeting, adding that voices of different stakeholders would be heard.

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

Pal said the committee would call various Muslim bodies representing the 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 for 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.