Rejects Opposition-sponsored changes in the bill
New Delhi: The parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf bill is set to propose that existing ‘Waqf by user’ properties will remain so if not in dispute or are government facilities but they must be registered before the new law takes effect, providing little relief to Waqf bodies in their unverified title claims.
Opposition MPs on Monday proposed amendments in all 44 clauses of the Waqf (amendment) bill, seeking to mostly restore the provisions of the current Act, and claimed that the law proposed by the committee in its report would maintain the bill’s “draconian” character and the bid to interfere in the religious affairs of Muslims.
While the accepted amendments make some concessions to Muslim bodies criticising the bill, including leaving it to Waqf boards to decide on welfare measures for widows and orphans, among others, instead of mandating it by law, a few of them may further irk the critics.
The meeting of the joint parliamentary committee headed by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal was again marked by noisy protests by Opposition members, who accused him of “subverting” democratic process.
The panel is set to adopt its report on Wednesday with MPs of Opposition parties such as the Congress, TMC, DMK and the AIMIM expected to give their dissent, sources said.
The committee will now meet for one last time, likely on Wednesday, the timing for which was notified on Monday. All 32 amendments proposed by BJP MPs and their allies from the TDP and the JD(U) were accepted. Opposition MPs put forward more than 500 amendments at Monday’s meeting.
With Parliament’s budget session set to begin on January 31, the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance can get the bill passed in the first half of the session as it enjoys a majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, they added.
Among the amendments that may draw further objection from Muslim groups and Opposition parties is that a Waqf board can now have even four non-Muslim members instead of two.
One of the changes passed by the panel said “two of total members of the Board appointed under this sub-section, excluding ex-officio members, shall be non-Muslim”, the sources said.
The phrase “excluding ex-officio members” did not feature in the bill.
While the bill states that only a person practising Islam for at least five years may declare a Waqf, which refers to properties dedicated exclusively for religious or charitable purposes under Islamic law, an approved amendment adds that such a person should be showing or demonstrating that he or she is practising the religion for five years, according to the sources.
DMK MP A Raja alleged that the committee’s proceedings were reduced to a “mockery” and that the “report is already ready by this time.”
“The DMK, myself, will move the Supreme Court to strike down the new law after it receives Parliament’s nod,” he said.
Pal, however, rebutted the charges, and said the panel considered all the amendments in a democratic way. The view of the majority prevailed, he said, adding that the accepted amendments would make the proposed law better and more effective.
He noted that the government was bound to accept the changes made by the committee.
Among the other amendments supported by the BJP and its allies and adopted by the committee with 16-10 votes in favour is to do away with vesting any inquiry into disputes over a government property with the district collector concerned, the sources said.
The accepted amendment proposed by BJP MP Brij Lal said that the “state government may by notification designate an officer above the rank of collector” to carry out an inquiry, as per law.
Several Muslim bodies had objected to the authority given to the collector, noting that he was also the head of revenue records, and any inquiry by him might not be impartial as he would go by his own office’s claim.
