Parliamentary panel adopts report on Waqf bill by majority; opposition slams move
New Delhi (PTI): A parliamentary panel examining the Waqf Amendment Bill on Wednesday adopted by a majority vote its report that contained changes suggested by ruling BJP members, prompting the opposition to dub the exercise as an attempt to destroy the Waqf boards.
The Joint Committee of Parliament (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, chaired by BJP member Jagdambika Pal, adopted the report on the draft legislation by a 15-11 majority vote. Opposition members were submitting dissent notes to the report.
BJP members insisted that the bill, introduced in Lok Sabha in August last year, seeks to bring modernity, transparency and accountability in the management of Waqf properties, while the opposition termed it as an attack on the constitutional rights of the Muslim community and interference in the functioning of the Waqf boards.
Speaking to reporters after the 38th sitting of the committee, Pal said the report will be presented to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday and tabled in both Houses of Parliament during the Budget Session beginning Friday.
A key concern of the opposition was the appointment of non-Muslims on the Waqf Board, which they claimed was violative of Article 26 of the Constitution that granted citizens freedom to manage their religious affairs, including establishment and maintenance of institutions for religious and charitable purposes.
"You have violated our rights granted under Article 26 of the Constitution. You talked about Uniform Civil Code, but there are Hindu Endowment Board, Sikh Boards, Christian boards which do not have non-Hindus, non-Sikhs, and non-Christians as members. But why does this not extend to Muslims? This is an attempt to destroy the Waqf Boards," Congress member Imran Masood told reporters here.
At its meeting on Monday, the committee had adopted 14 amendments to the bill, all proposed by BJP members and rejected every change suggested by the opposition members, including Congress, DMK, TMC, AAP, Shiv Sena-UBT and the AIMIM.
Trinamool leader Kalyan Banerjee claimed the observations and recommendations of the committee were "wholly perverse".
The BJP members contended that the amendments suggested by the opposition were intended to uphold the 1995 law and negate the spirit of the Waqf Amendment Bill-2024.
"All these amendments are not in the interest of the Waqf. These will destroy the Waqf board and increase interference of the central government in their functioning," AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said.
He said the evacuee properties could also be taken over by the government.
"This will not be acceptable to the masses, especially the Muslim community. We reject this Waqf amendment. Muslims will lose their masjids," Owaisi said.
According to the amendments accepted by the committee, the state Waqf boards will now include one member from the Muslim OBC community, ensuring broader representation.
It also has provisions that allow the state government to establish separate Waqf boards for Aghakhani and Bohra communities and safeguard women’s inheritance rights in Waqf Alal Aulad (family waqfs).
The amendments also allow the income from Waqf Alal Aulad to support widows, divorced women, and orphans, if specified by the waqif (creator of the waqf).
Pal claimed that many of the amendments approved by the committee have addressed several concerns of opposition members as well, adding the Bill once enacted will help Waqf board in discharging its duties transparently and more effectively.
For the first time, "pasmanda" (backward) Muslims, the poor, women and orphans have been included among beneficiaries of the Waqf, an endowment made by Muslims for charitable religious purposes, he said.
The committee held 38 meetings in the national capital since its constitution on August 8 last year and toured several state capitals to consult stake holders.
"This report is a significant document that empowers the Muslim community," BJP member Tejasvi Surya said.
DMK's A Raja said that the draft report was circulated among the 31-member committee late Tuesday night and members got very little time to peruse the voluminous document.
While the adopted bill accepts the government's stand of removing the "Waqf by user" clause in the existing law, it has added that no cases will be reopened against such properties on a retrospective basis provided these are not in dispute or belong to the government.
The report made it clear that the provisions to omit the 'Waqf by user' definition of a Waqf property will be with prospective effect.
It has also endorsed the government's move to include non-Muslims in Waqf boards, saying they can be "beneficiaries, parties to disputes, or otherwise interested in Waqf matters".
It, however, does away with the enquiry power vested with the district collector concerned in cases of disputes with the government, giving the authority to the state government to designate an officer senior to the collector to probe the matter.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was referred to the JPC on August 8, 2024, following its introduction in Lok Sabha by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
The Bill aims to amend the Waqf Act, 1995, to address issues and challenges in regulating and managing Waqf properties.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
