The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is slated to be tabled in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
According to the List of Business of Lok Sabha, Jagdambika Pal, chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, along with BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, will present the report of the Joint Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
They will also lay on the table the record of evidence given before the Joint Committee. The report was presented to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on January 30, 2025.
In Rajya Sabha, the report will be tabled by Medha Vishram Kulkarni and Gulam Ali.
The JPC on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill adopted the draft report and the amended revised bill on January 29.
However, opposition leaders submitted their dissent notes on the report.
The JPC had earlier cleared the Waqf Bill with 25 amendments across 14 clauses and sections.
” For the first time, we have included a section stating that the benefits of Waqf should go to the marginalized, poor, women, and orphans,” Jagdambika Pal had told ANI.
“We had 44 clauses before us, out of which amendments were proposed by members in 14 clauses. We conducted a majority vote, and these amendments were then adopted,” he added.
Trinamool Congress MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Md Nadimul Haque, who were members of the panel, had protested “the expunction of key portions of their dissent notes” submitted to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
In a letter addressed to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the MPs alleged that their objections were removed arbitrarily without prior notice or explanation.
“To our dismay and utter surprise, we found that the following objectives and dissent notes have been deleted by the Chairman without informing us and without our consent,” the MPs wrote in their letter dated February 3, 2025.
The dissent notes, submitted after the draft report of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was approved with 14 members in favour and 11 against, criticised the committee’s proceedings and recommendations.
Banerjee and Haque alleged that the committee’s conclusions were biased and predetermined and claimed that the committee ignored stakeholder representations, witness depositions, and submissions made by opposition members.
Banerjee and Haque also criticised the procedural lapses, alleging that the minutes of the meetings were manipulated.
“The minutes were made as per the dictation of the Chairperson and do not paint the true picture of the JPC meetings,” they asserted. (ANI)
