A 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee was announced on Friday to examine the contentious Waqf Amendment Bill and it will submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the next session of Parliament.

The Bill, seeking to make changes in the management of Waqf properties in the country, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after a heated discussion.

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The Opposition maintained that the Bill won’t stand judicial scrutiny as it would encroach on the fundamental rights of the people and go against the secular spirit of the Constitution.

Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had agreed to refer the Bill for study by a committee, and moved the motions for the constitution of the Joint Committee of MPs.

The 21 members of the Lok Sabha on the committee are Mr Jagdambika Pal, Mr Nishikant Dubey, Mr Tejasvi Surya, Mrs Aparajita Sarangi, Mr Sanjay Jaiswal, Mr Dilip Saikia, Mr Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Mr D K Aruna, Mr Gourav Gogoi, Mr Imran Masood, Mohammad Jawed, Mr Mohibbullah, Mr Kalyan Banerjee, Mr A Raja, Mr Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Mr Dileshwar Kamait, Mr Arvind Sawant, Mr Mahtre Balya Mama Suresh Gopinath, Mr Naresh Ganpat Mhaske, Mr Arun Bharti and Mr Asaduddin Owaisi.

The 10 members of the Rajya Sabha on the committee are Mr Brij Lal, Dr Medha Vishram Kulkarni, Mr Gulam Ali, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Mr V Vijayasai Reddy, Mr M Mohamed Abdulla, Mr Sanjay Singh and Dr Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade.

As per the rules governing the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), the quorum for a meeting of the JPC shall be one-third of the total number of the committee members.

The Rules of Procedures of the Lok Sabha governing other Parliamentary committees shall apply to the Joint Committee with such variations and modifications as the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Om Birla, may make.

According to the Objects and Reasons of the Amendment Bill, the Waqf Act, 1995, was enacted to provide for better administration of Auqaf properties and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

However, during the course of implementation of the Act, it was felt that the Act had not proved effective in improving the administration of the auqaf properties which are donated or bequeathed.

Based on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee under the chairmanship of Justice (Retired) Rajinder Sachar and the Report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf and the Central Waqf Council and after having detailed consultation with other stakeholders, comprehensive amendments were made in the Act in 2013.

Despite the amendments, it was observed that the Act still required further improvement to effectively address issues related to the powers of the State Waqf Boards, registration and survey of waqf properties, removal of encroachments, including the definition of the “waqf” itself.