The Parliament passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, in the early hours of Friday following an extensive discussion in the Rajya Sabha.
In total, 128 votes were cast in favour and 95 votes against the Bill. The Bill will now be forwarded to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent. After that, it will become an Act.
The Bill in Rajya Sabha went through a fierce debate between NDA and INDIA bloc leaders.
Participating in a debate, Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Bill was brought with a number of amendments based on suggestions given by various stakeholders.
"The Waqf Board is a statutory body. All government bodies should be secular," the minister said, explaining the inclusion of non-Muslims on the board.
However, he dismissed allegations that the Bill would harm Muslim interests and asserted that non-Muslims cannot interfere in the Waqf Board's affairs as its management, creation, and beneficiaries would remain exclusively Muslims.
Just a few hours before the voting, Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) opened the gates for a "conscience vote' telling its seven upper house MPs that they would not be bound by a whip and could vote for whichever side they wanted.
The party's senior leader Sasmit Patra, in a post on X, said they took that view after taking into consideration the sentiments of "different sections of the Minority communities regarding the Waqf (Amendment) Bill".
Earlier, the Lok Sabha on Thursday approved the Bill after over a 12-hour-long marathon debate. In the lower house, the bill was supported by 288 MPs while 232 voted against it.
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