Ten Opposition members of the joint parliamentary committee on the 2024 Waqf Amendment Bill were suspended for a day on Friday, The Hindu reported. Their suspension came after the MPs protested against the alleged last-minute change in the agenda of the meeting made by the panel’s chairman Jagdambika Pal.

The members who were suspended were Kalyan Banerjee and Nadimul Haque of the Trinamool Congress, Congress’ Mohammad Jawed, Syed Naseer Hussain and Imran Masood, and A Raja and Mohamed Abdullah of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Samajwadi Party’s Mohibbullah Nadvi and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’s Arvind Sawant were the other members who were suspended.

In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the members claimed that the “sudden and surprising” suspension came after Pal, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP, spoke to “somebody” over the phone during the meeting. The Opposition leaders demanded an investigation monitored by the Supreme Court into who Pal had spoken to on the phone, The Hindu reported.

The incident took place on a day Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq deposed before the panel in relation to the proposed legislation.

Following the meeting, the Opposition MPs said that Pal in an interview to a news agency had announced that the committee report would be adopted on January 29, the Deccan Herald reported. This deadline has been announced without consultation, they alleged.

Pal told ANI that he had allowed the panel members to put forth their views.

“When I tried to answer their questions, they [Opposition members] started sloganeering, making noise and using unparliamentary words,” Pal alleged. “They created a lot of ruckus. They were not allowing the meeting to proceed.”

The BJP MP said that the members had “tried to weaken democracy” and alleged that the ruckus was part of the Opposition’s strategy to stall the proceedings of the meeting “and they do not want the report to be submitted”.

The 44 amendments in the bill, tabled in Parliament in August, propose to curb the authority of waqf boards, allow greater control by the government, allow non-Muslims to be members of the boards, restrict the donation of properties, and change how waqf tribunals function.

A waqf is a property given for a religious, educational or charitable cause by Muslims. In India, waqfs are governed under the Waqf Act. Each state has a Waqf Board led by a legal entity, who is vested with the power to acquire, hold and transfer a property. The Act was last amended in 2013.

The bill has been opposed by leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc and Muslim groups including Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, who said it violated the right to freedom of religion and the freedom to manage religious affairs, among others.

After objections from the Opposition, the draft legislation was referred to the joint parliamentary committee on August 8 for further consultation.

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