A joint parliamentary committee on Wednesday adopted the revised 2024 Waqf Amendment Bill after a vote, with 15 votes in favour of its draft report and 11 against, PTI reported.

The committee had cleared the bill on Monday after accepting proposals by members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. Amendments proposed by Opposition MPs were rejected.

On Wednesday, Opposition MPs called the bill “unconstitutional” and said it would allow government interference in the religious matters of Muslims.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Jagdambika Pal, who chaired the committee, claimed that several amendments approved by the committee address concerns raised by the Opposition, PTI reported.

Pal added that the bill would assist waqf boards in discharging their duties transparently and effectively once enacted.

The legislators had been given till 4 pm on Wednesday to submit dissent notes on the draft report, The Indian Express reported.

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, which is empowered to acquire, hold and transfer property. The Act was last amended in 2013.

The new amendment bill has been opposed by leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc and Muslim groups, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, who maintain that it violates the right to freedom of religion and the freedom to manage religious affairs.

The 44 amendments in the bill, which were tabled in Parliament in August, propose to curb the authority of waqf boards and allow greater government control over them. They would also allow non-Muslims to become board members, restrict property donations and alter the function of waqf tribunals.

The draft legislation was referred to the joint parliamentary committee on August 8 after objections from the Opposition.

The committee had 31 members from the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Sixteen were from the National Democratic Alliance, including 12 from the BJP, while 14 were from Opposition parties and one member was nominated. The committee met 38 times.

Pal said the report will be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday. He added that Birla would decide if the bill would be passed during the Budget Session starting from January 31.

Pasmanda, or lower-caste, Muslims, the poor, women and orphans had also been included among beneficiaries of the Waqf Act for the first time, he said.

Changes made by the committee included the removal of the power given to district collectors in the bill to initiate inquiries in cases related to disputes with the government about waqf properties, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.

Instead, the authority to designate an officer to probe the matter has been vested with state governments.

However, the committee upheld the Union government’s removal of the “waqf by user” clause in the existing law. It added that no cases would be reopened against such properties on a retrospective basis as long as they were not in dispute or belonged to the government.

The “waqf by user” clause stipulates that a property’s nature as waqf can be established by long-term use for religious and charitable purposes on a property. Many mosques, dargahs and graveyards are waqf by use.

The committee also endorsed the move to include non-Muslims in waqf boards, claiming they could be “beneficiaries, parties to disputes, or otherwise interested in Waqf matters”, PTI reported.

Opposition MPs submit dissent note

In their dissent notes, several legislators objected to the proposed omission of the “waqf by user” clause in the bill, saying that the provision had existed since time immemorial.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the last-minute inclusion of the “waqf by user” clause was “wholly unhelpful”, PTI reported.

The principle would only be tested in cases where the property was placed '“in dispute”, in which case it would not apply, he added.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said that “any bad-faith actor can institute a litigation over any part of the properties belonging to the ‘waqf by user’ and consequently prevent it from seeking any protection under the amended Act”.

He added that the changes allowed the government to interfere excessively in the functioning and management of waqf boards and waqf properties in the country, PTI reported.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member A Raja said that any move to omit the “waqf by user” clause would violate the fundamental rights of the Muslim community.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Arvind Sawant criticised the inclusion of non-Muslims as members of the waqf board, PTI reported. “Nomination of such non-related members will create chaos as tomorrow the other communities may demand parity in all endowments,” he said.

Earlier in the day, several Opposition MPs claimed that the 655-page draft report was circulated to them on Tuesday night, leaving them with little time to study it and prepare their arguments against it.