Waqf Amendment Bill To Be Presented In Lok Sabha Tomorrow

The Waqf Amendment Bill, set to be presented in Parliament tomorrow, proposes reforms in managing waqf properties in India.

The controversial Waqf Amendment Bill, which calls for significant reforms to the administration of waqf properties in India, will be introduced in Parliament tomorrow at 12 noon.

The Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha on August 8, 2024, and has since witnessed protests by the opposition leaders, who have claimed that the bill has been brought in with a 'communal intention" and is an "assault" on the Constitution.

The Waqf Bill was sent for review and discussion to a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) consisting of 21 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha members. The committee was given the charge to examine the bill and reporting its findings by the last week of the Winter Session, 2024.

The joint committee has 655-page report submitted on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on January 30. It suggested several amendments to the proposed legislation even as the opposition members disagreed with the report and submitted dissent notes. 

The ongoing Budget session of Parliament is scheduled to end on April 4, and the bill will have to be passed by both the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha to become a law.

What Union Minister of Minority Affairs Said?

On the Waqf Amendment Bill, Union Minister of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju said, "In the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting of Lok Sabha, I had proposed before the committee that tomorrow on 2nd April, we are bringing the Waqf Amendment Bill and for that we have to allocate time for discussion...Finally, there was an agreement that the total time to be located for discussion on the Waqf Amendment Bill would be eight hours extendable after taking the assent of the House..."

What AIMIM Chief Said?

Earlier in the day, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi termed the bill as 'unconstitutional'.

He said, "This bill is unconstitutional. This bill is a violation of Article 14, Articles 25, 26 and 29. If Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary will praise it then they are doing so for their political reasons... They are supporting it but what answer will they give to the public after 5 years? If no non-Hindu can become a member in the Hindu Endowment Board, then why are you making a non-Muslim here?..."