The Waqf Amendment Bill goes beyond constitutionally allowed State interference for better administration
As the Union government disregards serious concerns and rushes towards enacting the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Joint Parliamentary Committee needs to step up to maintain the sanctity of the Constitution, writes Mohammad Wasim.
Mohammad Wasim
Published on: 21 January 2025, 01:02 pm
THE disquiet around The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 can be attributed to the apprehension that the Union government has exploited the shortcomings and misgovernance in waqf administration as a pretext for expanding the scope of government interference in waqf institutions beyond what is required for their better administration.
In fact, the prime motive seems to be to enable government interference for purposes that may prove detrimental to the raison d’etre of the institution of waqf.
In this context, let us objectively examine major concern areas on the parameters of desirability, necessity and constitutionality, and see whether these concerns are merited or hyperbolised.
At the outset, it may be remarked that waqf institutions in India suffer from pervasive and intractable corruption and chronic misgovernance. Mosques and madarsas may be among the few institutions where waqf property is being used for demarcated purposes, and to that extent they may be accepted, though the latter suffers from its own set of issues on another account.
Consequently, waqf property is beset by encroachment, sale and lease at throwaway prices and a lack of innovative economic practices for the enhancement of income from unoccupied properties to serve the goals of the waqf institutions effectively.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by K. Rehman Khan reported in 2013 that 70 percent of waqf property has been encroached upon and with regard to the remaining, there are cases of blatant corruption, including disposal of land to builders, markets, hotels, malls or industries at throwaway rents.
For instance, in Delhi alone, illegally occupied properties include the CGO complex, JLN Stadium and Delhi Public School (Mathura Road).
In Andhra Pradesh, hundreds of acres of land belonging to the Dargah Hussain Shah Vali endowment, which is valued at thousands of crores of rupees, have been illegally sold to multinational companies, particularly information technology companies.
