Joint Forum against NRC writes to Joint Committee of Parliament on Waqf Amendment Bill; asks for revocation

Joint Forum criticizes Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 for diminishing Waqf Boards' powers and granting arbitrary powers to District Collectors.

The Joint Forum against National Register of Citizens (NRC), a common platform of civil society groups, socio-political organisations and individuals have filed a deposition with the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 on Monday. The forum criticised the proposals in the Bill for diminishing the powers of the Waqf Boards and giving “arbitrary powers” to District Collectors.

The five-member delegation of the Joint Forum against NRC, which submitted the deposition to Jagdambika Pal, Chairperson of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf Amendment Bill, comprised Professor Albeena Shakil, Dr. Amartya Roy, Umar Awais, Samiran Sengupta, and Soumyadeep Biswas.

Some of the key salient points mentioned in the deposition were “Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 is distinctive because it has generated controversies about violations of the Indian Constitution. Our objections to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 are mainly on the ground that several provisions of the proposed legislation are violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed to Indian citizens.”

Some of the other major arguments made were that the Waqf Amendment Bill is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, and keeping the option for the Waqf State Boards to have non-Muslim majority is discriminatory and fundamentally violates the Constitution. They added: “A District Collector has no role in administering the religious endowments of Hindus or other religious denominations, yet the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024 grants them sweeping powers in the case of Waqf property...the Bill undermines the sacrosanctity of Muslim endowments.”

They also urged the Committee to take their recommendations and suggestions into account and “recommend the revocation of all the provisions in the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 which violate Articles 14, 15, 25 and 26 of the Indian Constitution.” Their deposition also added that “the passage of such legislation in Parliament would harm the secular fabric of India and lead to further litigation in the courts.”