Rijiju confident parliament's joint committee on Waqf Bill will complete work in time

New Delhi: Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju Wednesday expressed confidence the Parliament's joint committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill will submit its report within the stipulated time, even as he asserted the consultation process is the most extensive in the history of the country's parliamentary democracy.

Rijiju said the committee would fulfil the mandate of submitting its report before the last day of the first week of Parliament's Winter Session.

"I feel the way and at the speed at which Parliament's joint committee is functioning, they should be able to table the report of the joint parliamentary committee as stipulated in the rule in the terms of reference...the committee has to submit the report before the last day of the first week of the Winter Session. They will fulfil it," Rijiju told a press conference on the first 100 days of the ministry.

The dates for the Winter Session have not been announced yet.

Asked about BJP MP Nishikant Dubey raising concerns over the nearly 1.25 crore feedback submissions received by the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Rijiju said, "I can't comment on the functioning of the joint parliamentary committee. It has been empowered, how mails have come in and in what circumstances that the JPC will look into."

"We ill cooperate fully. We have not taken the report from JPC and what is happening inside the JPC, we will not go into. We made a JPC and empowered it. We will look into issues after the report is submitted to us," he said.

Rijiju noted that the government tabled the Waqf (Amendment) Bill and then it was sent to the Parliament's joint committee.

"We want that the joint parliamentary committee finishes its work as the Winter Session approaches. The information that I have gotten about Parliament's joint committee is very positive," he said.

Over 1 crore representations have been received by the Parliament's joint committee which is hearing views comprehensively from all sides -- be it government organisations or civil society groups, he said.

"I congratulate the JPC chief and all its members for such extensive hearings which have never taken place in our history. Secretary, Minority Affairs, and his team are doing their best to help the JPC do its job. In the history of the country, never have such extensive consultations taken place," Rijiju said.

Waqf amendments have taken place earlier as well but no government has carried out such extensive consultations before be it during the amendments of 1954, 1995 or 2013.

"This is a good thing for democracy. So the consultation process for 2024 Waqf (Amendment) Bill is the most extensive in the history of Indian parliamentary democracy," he said and added, "we hope people will appreciate this".

Senior BJP Lok Sabha member Jagdambika Pal is the chairperson of the joint committee of Parliament examining the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

The joint panel has 31 members -- 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha -- and will submit its report by the next session.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August and referred to a joint committee of Parliament after a heated debate, with the government asserting the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques, while the opposition calling it targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.

The committee has been asked to submit its report to Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the next session.