Ignoring criticism, the BJP-led government has worked it through the grinder, and passed the Waqf Amendment Bill in both houses of Parliament. The Muslim community, already on the back-foot, considers it another body blow to its quickly diminishing minority rights.
The history of this piece of legislation reflects how far it has divided the nation. It was first introduced in August last, but because of persistent demands by the Opposition, it was sent for consideration to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). The JPC submitted its report on February 13, 2025, and received a fast track Union Cabinet’s approval six days later.
Opposition MPs on the panel have said their proposed amendments were given short shrift, and even their dissenting notes had been redacted from the report. After a long debate in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, running into the wee hours, the bill has been passed. The fact the voting was 288-232 in the lower house, and 128-95 in the Upper House, shows it was close and the BJP had to lean on allies to see it through.
Government control
Waqf refers to personal property, both moveable or immovable, that has been donated through the ages for religious or charitable purposes; and once a property is declared to be ‘waqf’, it is transferred to God or Allah and cannot be alienated or sold.
These properties may have been bestowed to God; but in the temporal world they are of humungous value and controversy. In India, waqf properties are spread across nearly a million acres, or about 4,046 square kilometers, nearly twice the size of Mauritius, and are conservatively valued at Rs 1.12 lakh crore. They are administered by 32 government-established waqf boards covering the states and union territories, and headed by the Central Wakf Council (CWC) that advises the Union government.
The current amendment assails the Waqf Act of 1995, an evolution from Central Waqf Act of 1954. The 1995 Act was amended in 2013, to strengthen protection of waqf properties, but the BJP government says this is not enough.
A 3rd April press release from the ministry of minority affairs lists 10 ills the amended act seeks to rectify. These include lack of transparency in Waqf property management, incomplete surveys and mutation of land records, insufficient scope for women’s inheritance rights, and provisions that create prolonged litigation and encourage encroachment.
The ‘note’ also attacks the ‘irrational power’ of the Waqf Boards in declaring any property as waqf land based on their own inquiry. It even lists various cases. For example, a farmer in Thiruchenthurai village was unable to sell his land due to the Waqf Board’s claim over the entire village. This unexpected requirement prevented him from selling his land to repay a loan taken for his daughter's wedding.
While seeking more accountability and stemming corruption are indeed laudatory causes, the more than 40 amendments look like foils for the government seeking greater control over Muslim community properties.
Despite opposition in the JPC, the bill has retained the provision for allowing upto two non-Muslims to be appointed on the boards of key waqf institutions, including the Central Waqf Council, State Waqf Boards, and waqf tribunals. The requirement that a waqf board’s chief executive officer must be a Muslim has also been removed.
These have to be read along with another amendment that ends the earlier finality of the waqf tribunals, and now allows their decisions to be challenged in a high court. The requirement that there be a seat for an expert on Muslim law on the tribunal has also been removed. These changes undermine the autonomy of the waqf boards, and give more powers to government officers and agencies over lakhs of waqf properties, including graveyards and mosques.
More disputes coming
This will not reduce disputes and litigation. In fact, it will provide grist to the mill of pseudo historical claims of right wing hindutva extremists. These groups, with state patronage, are currently on a spree of discovering and claiming buried, ancient temples under the structure of existing mosques.
Various other provisions add to the creeping government control over the community’s affairs. The amendments now introduce the District Collector, or an officer of equivalent or higher rank, as an arbiter to decide whether a property is waqf or government land. No prizes for guessing which way he will decide.
There is no doubt the Waqf Act and the waqf administration needs a through overhaul. There is corruption and mismanagement; and women are denied representation. In fact the Justice Sachar Commission, which submitted its report on the socio-economic conditions of the Muslim community in India in 2005, had urged an overhaul of waqf boards and the monitoring of waqf properties to generate higher returns for the Muslim community.
However, it is difficult to believe that the Waqf Amendment Bill is to bring in progressive reform. Religious and property trusts of all communities are plagued by corruption and bad management. Have the Hindu temple trusts generating billions, who are accountable to no one, or the Parsi Panchayats and the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC), been brought under a similar scanner?
What is at stake is the sanctity of the Constitution. Its authors wrote out special provisions for religious minorities aimed at preserving their identity and culture; and under Article 26, the minorities have the right to form and run religious and charitable institutions. The state is therefore duty bound not to interfere in areas of marriage, divorce, inheritance and family relations.
However, the BJP-ruled union government sees things otherwise. It says Muslim personal laws, based on Sharia (Islamic law), are a violation of Article 14, which calls for equality before law. It is in this context that we have to see each of these milestones - the Wakf Bill, and now the coming legislation for a uniform civil code (UCC).
