CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleging that the dissent notes submitted by Opposition members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, were modified. He urged the Speaker to investigate the matter.
The JPC report on the Waqf Bill was tabled in Parliament last week amid strong Opposition protests. In his letter, the Rajya Sabha MP pointed out procedural improprieties in presenting the report in both Houses.
He stated that when the report was presented to the Speaker on January 30, it was ordered to be printed, published, and circulated on the same day under Rule 280 of the Lok Sabha Rules of Procedure. The report was also uploaded on the Digital Sansad website. However, Annexure IV, which contained dissent notes from JPC members, had several portions expunged, Kumar alleged.
Following protests from Rajya Sabha members on February 13, the day the report was listed for presentation, some ministers made conflicting statements regarding the expunction of dissent notes. A corrigendum to Annexure IV was later tabled in the Rajya Sabha, but Kumar claimed that no such corrigendum was reflected in the report presented in the Lok Sabha or on the Digital Sansad website. He argued that this omission misrepresented facts and misled Parliament and the public.
Kumar also referred to Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement in the Lok Sabha, in which Shah claimed that the ruling party had no objections to including the dissent notes. The CPI MP criticized this stance, calling it an “authoritarian” approach by the BJP-led government. He questioned why a JPC, which is supposed to function independently of the executive, needed the ruling party’s approval for publishing its report. He asserted that such interference undermines Parliament’s authority.
Furthermore, he stated that the Union Cabinet has no jurisdiction over JPC reports and emphasized that any expunction decisions made by the Speaker must be clearly reflected in the report. He urged the Speaker’s office to address these irregularities and ensure transparency in the process.
