All opposition leaders have boycotted the JPC’s report on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, and demanded an extension of the committee’s tenure, ANI reported.

After walking out of the JPC, several opposition leaders spoke with reporters on the premises, expressing discontent over the draft report.

Opposition leaders react

AAP MP and JPC member Sanjay Singh said that submitting a draft report before all stakeholders are heard and the JPC tour is complete is “wrong”. “The Speaker had assured us that he would extend the time of the JPC… Sidelining all these things you are saying that the draft report is ready to submit,” he said, adding that the governments of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh were yet to be heard.

Another committee member, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi asked that even if there is a mandate to submit the report on November 29, how can the same be done before completion of due procedure?

He said the committee hasn’t heard from stakeholders from Bihar, West Bengal. “There are many stakeholders that we want to meet. Why is this committee not allowing all the stakeholders to come?” he added.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee alleged that the JPC wasted time and brought only those people who are closely associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party. “The states that have maximum Waqf property weren’t called, including Delhi. 7 persons have died in Sambhal for the Waqf property – they are not taking things seriously,” he told reporters.

Congress MP and JPC member Gaurav Gogoi, on the other hand, told media persons that there was no balance between the government and the speaker.Gogoi said the opposition raised two important questions — one related to the assurances they have gotten from the Lok Sabha speaker that aren’t being fulfilled by the JPC chairman and the other related to the completion of the JPC process.

“The chairman said that the report is ready but we don’t want to be part of a biased procedure,” the Congress leader said. He also alleged that “some big union minister is giving direction to the chairman of the JPC”.

YSRCP MP Vijay Sai Reddy also backed the other leaders and said that many states’ Waqf boards and several stakeholders have not been given an opportunity before the JPC.

Reddy told reporters that a fair number of the JPC members had requested an extension of the committee’s tenure before the agenda item was taken up for consideration.

JPC chairman to move extension motion

Later, DMK MP and JPC member A Raja informed media persons outside the committee meeting that the JPC chairman has accepted “to move a motion tomorrow in the House that the term of the JPC will be extended for the next Budget session”.

On November 21, JPC chairman Jagdambika Pal said that the draft report was ready, noting that the next clause-by-clause discussions on the same will be held.

Pal had said that the Speaker referred the bill to the JPC, adding that the committee will act in accordance with Birla’s decision.

Notably, the Opposition leaders had earlier met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in connection with their demand to extend the tenure of the JPC on the Waqf Amendment Bill.

Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024

The Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, is aimed at amending the Wakf Act, 1995 – a law that governs Waqf boards to ensure accountability and transparency in their functioning and mandatory inclusion of women in these bodies.

The amendment bill aims to implement significant reforms by introducing digitisation, stricter audits, enhanced transparency, and legal mechanisms to reclaim properties that have been illegally occupied.