Waqf Amendment Bill: 31-member JPC constituted; Owaisi, Masood included

A 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee including 21 Lok Sabha MPs and 10 Rajya Sabha MPs has been constituted to look into the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday proposed the names of 21 Lok Sabha MPs and 10 Rajya Sabha MPs in the Parliament for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to look into the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Notably, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress MP Imran Masood have also been included in the committee.

In Lok Sabha, Kiren Rijiju proposed the names of 21 Lok Sabha MPs for JPC into Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024; also asked Rajya Sabha to recommend the names of 10 Members to be appointed to the JPC.

21 MPs from Lok Sabha who will be members of the JPC are Jagdambika Pal, Nishikant Dubey, Tejasvi Surya, Aparajita Sarangi, Sanjay Jaiswal, Dilip Saikia, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, DK Aruna, Gaurav Gogoi, Imran Masood, Mohammad Jawed, Maulana Mohibullah Nadvi, Kalyan Banerjee, A Raja, Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Dileshwar Kamait, Arvind Sawant, Suresh Gopinath, Naresh Ganpat Mhaske, Arun Bharti and Asaduddin Owaisi.

After that, the proposal was passed by the House.

In Rajya Sabha, Kiren Rijiju proposed the names of 10 Rajya Sabha MPs for JPC into the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024; 21 Lok Sabha MPs also are a part of the Committee.

10 MPs from Rajya Sabha who will be members of the JPC are - Brij Lal, Dr. Medha Vishram Kulkarni, Gulam Ali, Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, Syed Naseer Hussain, Mohammed Nadeem Ul Haq, V Vijayasai Reddy, M. Mohamed Abdulla, Sanjay Singh and Dr Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade.

The Motion was passed by the House.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die.

This comes a day after, Kiren Rijiju on Thursday introduced The Waqf (Amendment) Bill and proposed sending it to a joint parliamentary committee after Opposition parties objected to its provision.

Opposition parties including the Congress, DMK, NCP, Trinamool Congress and AIMIM strongly opposed the introduction of the bill, saying its provisions were against federalism and the constitutional provisions. While some members demanded the withdrawal of the bill, many suggested that should be sent to a standing committee.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, Waqf Act provides for the renaming of the Waqf Act, 1995, as the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995.