NEW DELHI: The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Monday cleared the proposed Waqf amendment bill tabled in the Parliament in August last year.
One of the more significant amendments proposed by the committee is that the existing Waqf properties cannot be questioned on the grounds of ‘Waqf by user’, which existed in the current law but will be omitted in the new version, if the properties are being used for religious purposes.
While briefing the media after the JPC meeting committee chairman Ja Pal said, “The amendments moved by the NDA members in 14 have been accepted.”
“Opposition members moved hundreds of amendments in all 44 clauses and all of them were defeated by vote,” he added.
Pal said at the meeting that amendments adopted by the committee will make the law better and more effective.
“Clause-by-clause meeting was held today. Opposition members had amendments over the 44 clauses. I asked members whether they are moving the amendments. They said they will be moving the amendments,” Pal said.
“There can’t be anything more democratic than this. The kind of amendments passed today. I believe a better bill will be prepared,” he added.
The committee also adopted 14 of the amendments pushed by the BJP-led NDA while negating every change suggested by the opposition members.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee termed Pal as the greatest blacklister of democracy and said that no rules or procedures were followed during the meet.
“Today, they did whatever they had fixed. They didn’t allow us to speak. No rules or procedures have been followed. Initially, we had asked for documents, representations and comments. All those things have not been supplied to us. They started clause by clause discussion. We said, first let’s discuss. Jagdambika Pal did not allow discussion at all. He then brought in the Amendment Motion. We were not all allowed to speak in the Amendment Motion,” Banerjee said.
“He himself moved, counted and declared. All Amendments have been passed. Our Amendments have been rejected and theirs have been allowed. This was a farce proceeding. This is a black day of democracy. Jagdambika Pal is the greatest blacklister of democracy. He is a man who has destroyed democracy,” he added.
The JPC had been asked to submit its report by November 29 but that deadline has since been extended – to the final day of Parliament’s Budget Session, which ends February 13.
The committee set up to study the amendments has had several hearings but many have ended in chaos after opposition MPs accused the Chair of bias towards the ruling party.