In the wake of plans to bring in a bill bringing sweeping changes in Waqf laws, the Congress has strongly opposed the same and referred to it as an “assault on the Constitution of India itself.” Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh levelled in a press statement that the government was trying to cripple institutions and break the country’s centuries-long bonds of social harmony in its many religious societies.
Ramesh then explained what he considered to be the five key flaws with the proposed legislation. The bill, as he alleged, seeks to downgrade institutions set up by earlier laws like the national council, state waqf boards, and tribunals so as to take away the community’s right to run their affairs and manage their religious practices. He also noted that the bill effectively brings in deliberate ambiguity about who could donate land for waqf, hence changing the very definition of waqf.
Among other things, there is reportedly a plan to abolish the concept of “waqf-by-user,” as the judiciary, based on the notion of continued and customary usage over long periods, developed the idea. Ramesh alleged that some scheduled by-laws of the existing law had been removed without justification to weaken the waqf administration. He also warned that the bill would reinforce stronger protection for encroachers on waqf properties and has conferred unlimited power to the Collectors and other designated state government officers to resolve registration issues with waqf properties.
The most contentious provision of the Congress was empowering state government officers to derecognize waqf property on the basis of complaints or mere allegations that the property in question is government land till a final decision is taken.
Last month, the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) that dug these controversial amendments submitted its report to both the Houses of Parliament.
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