Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who introduced the Waqf (Amendment) Bill-2024, expressed shock at the ways some government and private properties were declared Waqf properties. He questioned unfettered powers granted to the Waqf Boards through amendments brought in by the Congress-led UPA in 2013. The minister said that some mistakes needed to be fixed to ensure justice.
During his an-hour-long address in the Lok Sabha, Rijiju highlighted some interesting cases where the Waqf seemingly overstepped its mandate and claimed rights on government properties. He informed that the entire headquarters of the Surat Municipal Corporation had been declared Waqf property. "How can this happen? Is a municipal corporation someone's private property? How can the land of municipal property be declared as Waqf property?" he asked the Opposition, which has opposed the Bill.
The Union Minister also spoke about a village in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirappalli, which has a 1500-year-old history but has been declared a waqf property. "In Tiruchirappalli district, there is a 1500-year-old Sundareswarar Temple. A poor villager there went to sell his 1.2 acres of land. He was told that his entire village is Waqf property," the minister said. "Just imagine, the entire village, with a history of 1500 years, has been declared Waqf property."
Rijiju asked the opposition leaders to shun their ideological stand and see it objectively. "Whether it's Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh, don't view this issue through the lens of religion. Hearing about such incidents should concern you," he said.
Citing another case from Lucknow, the minister said that a woman, Bushra Fatima, along with her child, is living in very difficult conditions. He said that under the current act, she would lose entire property after her father's death and it would go to Waqf. "If we don't amend the current Waqf Board system, after her father's death, this entire property will not go to her and her child. Shouldn’t we intervene in such situations? Shouldn't we take steps to ensure justice for them? So, please don't view this issue through the lens of religion."
Referring to another individual case of the Bohra community, Rijiju said a person from Gujarat who had nothing to do with a property in Mumbai filed a case in the waqf and stopped developmental work on the land.
"There is an individual case from the Bohra community. In Mumbai, there is a trust. In 1944, the High Court had settled the matter. The status was clear. Dawood Ibrahim used to live in that area. The property has been settled, and after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came, the largest cluster development scheme in Asia was launched there. And then, a person from Gujarat, who has nothing to do with that property or the city, filed a complaint with the Waqf board, and the Waqf board notified it."
"Now think about it: a person who doesn't live in the city, has no historical connection with the property, and doesn't even reside in the state, interfered in a development project through a complaint to the Waqf Board. Think about how much pain the people of that (Bohra) community must feel."
Rijiju said that in Karnataka, thousands of acres of land were used for commercial purposes, which was against the principle of waqf. He said Waqf properties are meant to be used for religious, charitable, or pious purposes but the Karnataka state waqf board was misusing it.
According to a 2012 report by the Karnataka State Minority Commission, he said, the Karnataka Waqf Board converted 29,000 acres of land for commercial purposes.
Criticising the current Waqf Act, Rijiju said a method was created where the tribunal's judgments could not be reviewed even by the courts. "They (opposition) often invoked the Constitution. In our country, no law, no special law can be above the Constitution. There was a provision in the 1995 Act that had an overriding effect on other laws. Should such a law exist in our country?" he asked.
When our country was partitioned, Muslims who went to Pakistan had properties here, and Hindus who came to India had properties there. The Pakistani government took over the properties of Hindus who migrated, and Muslims here declared their properties as Waqf.
"If someone has made a will, and Muslim women or children do not benefit from it, should the government remain silent? It's our duty, and the duty of this House, to rectify any shortcomings and deliver justice to the poor, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, or Jain," the minister said defending the Bill.
Rijiju has proposed to send the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for further delibrations.