Triple talaq bill passed by Parliament

Parliament on Tuesday approved the bill that makes instant triple talaq a criminal offence, after the contentious legislation was passed by Rajya Sabha following non-aligned BJD extending support and NDA constituents JD-U and AIADMK walking out.

Lok Sabha had passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill last week and with Rajya Sabha now approving it, the practice of instant divorce by Muslim men will be punishable by jail term of up to three years.

The Upper House passed the bill by 99 votes in favour and 84 against it.

It earlier rejected an opposition sponsored motion to send the bill to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.

While BJD supported the legislation, JD-U and AIADMK walked out, lowering the majority mark which normally stands at 121. The ruling NDA has 107 members in the 242-member Rajya Sabha.

The NDA was also helped by the absence of some members of SP and BSP as well as those of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR-Congress.

The same strategy had helped the government push through the contentious amendment to the Right To Information (RTI) Act last week despite lacking numbers in the Upper House.

Once granted assent by the President, the bill will replace an ordinance promulgated last on February 21 to the same effect as the bill.

Replying to a four-and-half-hour debate on the Bill, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad cited jail provisions in the legislations that ban dowry and multiple marriages by Hindu men to justify the three-year jail term for Muslim men practices triple talaq.

To Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, who termed the bill as a politically motivated move to destroy Muslim households with domestic fights, the minister said the Congress leader should think of why his party could never win majority following the peak of 400-plus seats it won in 1984.

He saw the 1986 Shah Bano case, where the Congress did not stick its neck out to support women rights, as the main reason for the downfall of the party.

The law, he said, was not being brought due to the Supreme Court ruling of 2017 declaring talaq-e-biddat, commonly referred to as instant triple talaq, unconstitutional.

“I am a minister of Narendra Modi government and not Rajiv Gandhi government,” he said citing the Shah Bano case of 1986.

He said he cannot leave in lurch women who have been divorced by triple talaq via WhatsApp or other such means.