The 31 members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee will submit its report on the Waqf Bill by the next session of Parliament, the Government said on Friday. The Committee will have 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.

Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Soon after that, it was referred to a JPC. The introduction also saw heated debate, with the government asserting that the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques, and the opposition calling it targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.

On Friday, the Lok Sabha adopted a motion naming its members on the committee. The members include Jagdambika Pal, Nishikant Dubey, Tejasvi Surya, Aparajita Sarangi, Sanjay Jaiswal, Dilip Saikia, Abhikit Gangopadhyay, D K Aruna (all BJP), Gaurav Gogoi, Imran Masood and Mohd Jawed (all Congress), Maulana Mohibullah (SP), Kalyan Banerjee (TMC), A Raja (DMK), Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu (TDP), Dileshwar Kamait (JDU), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT), Balya Mama Suresh Gopinath Mhatre (NCP-Sharad Pawar), Naresh Mhaske (Shiv Sena), Arun Bharti (Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas) and Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM).

The 10 Rajya Sabha MPs named on the JPC are Brij Lal, Dr. Medha Vishram Kulkarni, Gulam Ali, Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agrawal (All from BJP), Syed Naseer Hussain (INC), Mohammed Nadimul Haq (TMC), V Vijayasai Reddy (YSRCP), M. Mohamed Abdulla (DMK), Sanjay Singh (AAP) and Dr Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade (Nominated).

The government is yet to name the chairperson. “The committee will submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the next session,” the motion approved said.

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