Contending that the Waqf (Amendment) Bill does not recognise their special status, the Dawoodi Bohra community, an affluent but microscopic minority sect among Muslims, told the parliamentary committee examining the proposed law that they should be kept out of the purview of any Waqf board. Senior advocate Harish Salve appeared for them before the panel headed by veteran BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, and a written submission made by the community noted that it is a "small and tightly-knit" denomination. "Its affairs do not need the kind of regulation that may be considered necessary or even desirable in relation to other denominations that do not believe in any such religious tenet," it said, according to sources. It is necessary that the community members are permitted to establish, maintain, manage and administer such properties in accordance with their beliefs and essential religious practices, it stressed. The power of the Waqf board undermines the community's founding faith, it claim