Waqf (Amendment) Bill: BJP’s Jagdambika Pal to head joint panel to examine contentious bill

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member Jagdambika Pal will head the joint committee of Parliament which will examine the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill. In a notification released on Tuesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla appointed Pal as the Chairperson of the 31-member committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Jagdambika Pal is a fourth-term MP from Uttar Pradesh and is seen as a lawmaker who enjoys warm cross-party relations, news agency PTI reported.

Amid protests over the Bill, the government decided to refer the bill to a joint committee of the two Houses. The joint panel has 31 members — 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha — and will submit its report by the next session.

List of 31 members of the joint committee

On Friday, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha adopted a motion moved by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, naming the members to be part of the committee.

In the Lok Sabha, 12 members of the panel are from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including eight from the BJP, and nine from the opposition. In the Upper House, four are from the BJP, four from the opposition, one from the YSRCP, which has opposed the Bill, and one is a nominated member.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the law governing waqf boards. It has proposed far-reaching changes in the present Act, including ensuring the representation of non-Muslims in Waqf bodies. It also seeks to rename the Waqf Act, 1995, as the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and referred to a joint committee of Parliament after a heated debate, with the government asserting the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques and the opposition calling it targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.

The committee has been asked to submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the next session, Rijiju said.

(With inputs from agencies)