Government amendments to Waqf Bill cleared; Opposition amendments defeated

New Delhi: Government on Wednesday brought amendments to the reworked Wakf (Amendment) Bill, 2025 to ensure that tribal properties and protected monuments are not declared Waqf properties.

The official amendments also included a provision that allow the Waqf Tribunal to give only a six-month extended window to register Waqf properties in an official portal, if the caretaker files an application explaining why he could not do it in the stipulated six months of the existence of new law.

The District Magistrate or Sub Divisional Magistrate will also have a 45-day period to implement the decisions taken by Waqf Board in place of absence of a timeline, according to another amendment.

Acceding to a recommendation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju submitted the amendment which said no land belonging to Scheduled Tribes under Schedule V and VI shall be declared or deemed to be a Waqf property. The JPC recommendation came as it said “numerous cases” have come to light “creating a serious threat” to the “existence of these cultural minorities.

Amid some monuments being declared Waqf properties, Rijiju also brought another amendment that any protected monument or protected area under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 or the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 declared as Waqf would be void. The Ministry of Culture has suggested this amendment to the JPC.

According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), 280 protected monuments have been declared as Waqf properties. Around 50 of them are in Karnataka.

While several Opposition MPs submitted amendments to delete provisions for registering Waqf properties on a portal within six months of the new law coming into place, the government allowed caretakers to approach Tribunals for extension to submit it. In the existing Bill, there was no deadline for taking a final call on it but a new amendment has fixed a six-month deadline.

Besides Rijiju’s six amendments, including some of them technical, Opposition MPs submitted at least 132 amendments to the Bills.

The Opposition MPs who submitted the amendments included Congress’ KC Venugopal, Imran Masood and Mohd Jawed, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, RSP’s NK Premachandran, Trinamool Congress’ Sougata Ray and CPI(M)’s K Radhakrishnan.

The Opposition MPs’ amendments included those on appointing only Muslims as CEO of the Waqf Board and omitting provisions for Waqf portal as well proof of ownership or competency to transfer in case of a Waqf by User and officials determining whether Waqf property belongs to government.

Some of them also wanted an omission of provision that only a practising Muslim of five years can only donate property to Waqf.

While all government amendments were carried through voice vote, none of the Opposition amendments, which were moved, was passed.

One of the amendments moved by RSP MP NK Premachandran that opposed the inclusion of non-Muslims in Waqf bodies was negated by a 231-288 vote.