Last update:November 27, 2024, 7:35 p.m. IST

The Chairman will present a resolution before the House for the extension of the committee until the last day of the next budget session. Once the motion is moved by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, it will be put to a vote by the House.

Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Bill, Jagdambika Pal, meets TMC MP and JPC member Kalyan Banerjee outside Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

Responding to the demand of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition MPs, Speaker Jagdambika Pal will on Thursday seek an extension of the mandate of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

The opposition staged a withdrawal from the meeting on Wednesday to demand the extension. The MPs said genuine stakeholders were not invited to discuss the bill and the committee was acting in accordance with the ruling party’s agenda.

Following a discussion on the need to submit the report as scheduled on November 29, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey also argued before the Speaker that the opposition’s demand was genuine. The committee adopted his suggestion to extend the length of the next session to further discuss the bill.

WHAT NEXT?

Pal will present a resolution before the House for the extension of the committee till the last day of the next budget session of Parliament. Once the motion is moved by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, it will be put to a vote by the House. The House believes that the committee will receive an extension in accordance with protocol.

After the meeting, DMK MP A Raja told News18, “We had a small walkout from the committee with the demand to extend the tenure of the committee. Much to our expectations, the President agreed.”

Another MP on the panel, Aparajita Sarangi of the BJP, said, “There was a huge uproar in the committee over the demand for extension of the panel’s tenure. After the opposition boycott, we had a big deliberation on the issue. Some ruling MPs also felt there was a need for more deliberations and convening more stakeholders. We have a resolution ready. The honorable president will propose it on Thursday. We hope the committee will extend its mandate. »

This request was widely accepted by the opposition parties who then returned to the meeting.

THE JPC

The JPC committee held its 29th meeting on Wednesday in the presence of the president. The bill was referred to it by the House during the last monsoon session of Parliament. On August 9, the bill was referred to the JPC.

According to available data, the committee has so far examined 13 Waqf boards and seven state representatives appeared before the Parliament panel.

So far, 42 organizations/stakeholders have appeared before the panel. The group undertook two study tours. During the first study tour to states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the panel met 123 stakeholders. The second trip had to be cut short due to opposition boycott and the team could only travel to Guwahati and Bhubaneswar. The panel considered 16 stakeholders.

The committee, which had asked the public to give their views on the bill both online and through physical representation, has so far received 92.28 lakh emails and 4.99 lakh physical representations.