Waqf Bill: JPC Report to Be Tabled in Parliament Today Amid Opposition’s Dissent

Waqf Bill: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, will be presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday, February 3.

According to the List of Business, BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Jagdambika Pal, along with BJP MP from Bihar Sanjay Jaiswal, will table the report (in both Hindi and English), accompanied by the evidence records that guided the cThe ommittee’s conclusions.

Last week on Thursday, Pal presented the committee’s final report on the bill to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

“We have adopted the report and the amended revised bill. For the first time, we have included a section stating that the benefits of Waqf should go to the marginalised, poor, women, and orphans. Tomorrow, we will present this report to the Speaker,” Pal shared with news agency ANI.

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"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," Pal added.

The JPC adopted the draft report and the amended revised bill on Wednesday, January 29. However, the opposition leaders submitted their dissent notes on the report.

The JPC had earlier cleared the Waqf Bill 1995 with 25 amendments across 14 clauses and sections.

In response to the report, opposition members submitted dissenting notes. However, Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi have alleged that sections of their dissent note on the bill were redacted without their knowledge. The Congress MP, in a potshot at the panel, claimed that they are censoring the "dissenting voices of Opposition MPS."

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"I had submitted a detailed dissent note to JPC against the Waqf Bill. It is shocking that parts of my note were redacted without my knowledge. The deleted sections were not controversial; they only stated facts," Owaisi said on X.

"The Joint Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was already reduced to a farce, but now they’ve stooped even lower—censoring dissenting voices of opposition MPs! What are they so scared of? Why this attempt to silence us?" Hussain said on X.

The Waqf Act of 1995, enacted to regulate Waqf properties, has faced longstanding criticism over mismanagement, corruption, and encroachments. However, BJP members argued that the bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha in August last year, aims to modernise the management of Waqf properties while ensuring transparency and accountability.

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