31-Member Joint Parliamentary Committee Formed for Waqf Amendment Bill; Owaisi and Masood Included

A 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), consisting of 21 Lok Sabha MPs and 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, has been established to review the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the committee members on Friday, including notable figures such as AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress MP Imran Masood.

In the Lok Sabha, Rijiju proposed 21 MPs for the JPC, and the Rajya Sabha was asked to nominate 10 members. The selected Lok Sabha MPs include 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.

In the Rajya Sabha, the committee will include 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 proposal was approved by both Houses, which have since adjourned sine die.

The formation of the JPC follows strong opposition from parties such as Congress, DMK, NCP, Trinamool Congress, and AIMIM, who criticized the bill’s provisions as contrary to federalism and constitutional principles. Some members called for the bill’s withdrawal, while others suggested it be sent to a standing committee.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, seeks to rename the Waqf Act, 1995, to the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development Act, 1995.