New Delhi: The assembly of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Modification) Invoice on Friday witnessed a heated debate and plenty of members strongly opposed some provisions of the proposed legislation. Opposition members additionally walked out of the assembly for a while. The committee, headed by Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) member Jagdambika Pal, heard the views of the All India Sunni Jamiatul Ulema and Indian Muslims for Civil Rights (IMCR), Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board and Rajasthan Muslim Waqf Board in a gathering that lasted for about eight hours.
Controversy was seen over the availability of ‘declaration of waqf by consumer’, empowering the District Collector as the first authority in figuring out the classification of property as waqf and inclusion of non-Muslims within the Central Waqf Council and state boards.
Sources say that some remarks made by BJP member Dilip Saikia in opposition to Aam Aadmi Occasion MP Sanjay Singh led to a heated trade between the opposition and the ruling social gathering members. There was chaos in the course of the assembly as objections have been raised over the presence of a lawyer as a consultant of each the Indian Muslim for Civil Rights and the Rajasthan Board of Muslim Waqf.
Opposition members, together with Congress MPs Mohammad Javed and Imran Masood, Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT), Sanjay Singh (AAP), Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM), DMK’s A Raja, Samajwadi Occasion’s Mohibullah Mohammed walked out of the assembly for some time over the problem of presence of the lawyer.
Opposition members additionally expressed concern over the elimination of consumer provision within the Waqf Act. The opposition members argued that the possession of over one lakh properties notified beneath Waqf by consumer provision in Uttar Pradesh can be in limbo on account of elimination of the stated provision and will open the way in which for encroachment. He argued that by legally recognising the evidentiary rule of ‘waqf by consumer’, historic websites which were constantly used as waqf can be pr