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The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill postponed its meeting scheduled for September 18 due to technical reasons. The JPC was scheduled to hold a three-day meeting from September 18 to 20 on the controversial Bill. On September 17, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Bill was committed to the management and preservation of Waqf properties and would be passed in Parliament in the coming days.
Shah added that the bill would also prevent the misuse of Waqf properties. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August and was referred to a JPC for further examination after opposition parties raised strong objections to certain provisions of the draft law. The bill seeks to reform the registration process for Waqf properties through a centralised portal.
It proposes several reforms, including establishing a Central Waqf Council alongside state Waqf Boards with representation to Muslim women and non-Muslim representatives. The Bill proposes to designate the district collector as the primary authority in determining whether a property is classified as Waqf or government land. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill also aims at renaming the act to the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995.
The JPC is headed by BJP member Jagdambika Pal and included Nishikant Dubey, Brij Lal, Tejasvi Surya and Sanjay Jaiswal of the BJP, Gaurav Gogoi, Mohammad Jawed, Syed Naseer Hussain and Imran Masood of the Congress, TMC's Kalyan Banerjee, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi and AAP's Sanjay Singh among others..
