Wakf Bill: JPC report will be presented in Lok Sabha on this day, budget session will be uproarious

New Delhi. The report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Wakf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 will be presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday (3 February). According to the Lok Sabha agenda, JPC Chairman Jagdambika Pal, along with BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, will present the report of the Joint Committee on the Wakf (Amendment) Bill in Hindi and English in the Lok Sabha on February 3. He will also place the record of the evidence given before the Joint Committee on the table of the House.

Earlier, the JPC report on the Wakf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was presented before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on January 30, 2025. JPC Chairman Jagdambika Pal reached Parliament and met the Lok Sabha Speaker and submitted the final report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Wakf Bill to him. The JPC on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill had approved the revised bill and its draft report on January 29. However, opposition leaders submitted their dissent notes on the report.

The JPC has approved the new draft with 25 amendments in 14 clauses and sections of the Waqf Bill 1995. JPC chairman Jagdambika Pal told the media, ‘We have adopted the draft report of the Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Bill and the revised bill. For the first time, we have included a clause which states that the benefits of waqf should go to the marginalised, the poor, women and orphans. We had 44 clauses of the bill before us, out of which amendments were proposed by JPC members in 14 clauses. We conducted a vote and then these amendments were adopted by a majority.’

However, the actions of the JPC were criticized by opposition leaders. The Waqf Act 1995 was enacted to regulate waqf properties. This law has long been criticized for issues such as mismanagement of Waqf properties, corruption and encroachment in the name of Waqf property. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 aims to address these challenges through digitization, audit, transparency and legal reforms to free the properties illegally occupied by the Waqf Board.

According to the Lok Sabha agenda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is going to introduce a bill to grant university status to Rural Management Institute Anand. It will be known as ‘Tribhuvan Cooperative University Bill’. Through this bill, Rural Management Institute Anand will be declared an institution of national importance. Let us tell you that the budget session of Parliament started on 31 January and will run till 4 April.