Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : The Lok Sabha on Thursday cleared a legislation to ban instant ‘Triple Talaq’ amid heated debate and fiery exchanges between Treasury and Opposition Benches on its several features, especially “criminalisation”.
However, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad insisted that the proposed legislation was not meant to target a particular religion but was meant only to ensure gender equality and justice for Muslim women.
“The practice is there only among Muslims. If it was there in other religions we would also bring a law against it,” Prasad said, asserting that the aim of the Narendra Modi government was only to ensure “injustice” against Muslim women is stopped.
The contentious Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, was passed with voice vote.
Earlier, the Bill was admitted with 303 members voting in its favour and 82 against it. Each and every part of the Bill contested tooth and nail and several amendments were moved by Opposition leaders, including RSP member NK Premachandra and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owasi, following which Speaker Om Birla asked members to stand.
To repeated demands for sending the proposed Act to a review panel and criticism that it “criminalises divorce between a couple and would act as a spoiler in relationships” Prasad said a “penal law also acts as a deterrent”.
While shooting the demand for “decriminalising” the law and the criticism that it was “meant to target Muslims”, he said the Hindu Marriage Act also had the provision of strict legal action against a man who marries again without divorcing his wife. “It should not be viewed with political prism, it is the question of humanity and justice, he added.
BJP’s Bihar ally JD (U) said it would not be a part of its formulation and urged the Narendra Modi government to not go with such a sensitive legislation in a hurry.
Speaking during the debate Rajiv Ranjan Singh of the JD (U) urged Law Minister Prasad to “first spread awareness in the society. You have got the mandate to do other things, leave it till the end of the tenure,” he said, making it also clear the way JD(U)’s six members would swing in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP-led NDA is lacking in numbers.
However, non-NDA BJD, which has seven members in the Rajya Sabha, supported the Bill in the Lok Sabha, giving hope to the government.
During the five hour-plus debate in the House amid allegations flying around, the ruling party charged Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan of sexist remarks against Rama Devi who was presiding over the House at that point in time.
Opposition charged the government with targeting Muslims with a “discriminatory” legislation with members from the Congress, the DMK, the BSP also accusing it of meddling with religious affairs. “It is actually against the Muslim women”, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owasi insisted.
“If homosexuality has been decriminalised why not triple talaq,” Owaisi wondered. Opposition leaders also dared the government to bring a law to put a check on lynching incidents in the country.
Putting up a strident defence of the proposed law, BJP’s women MPs, including Meenakshi Lekhi, Poonam Mahajan and Kirron Kher, termed the law “archaic”.
Prasad also said under the new provisions, the complainant can only be the affected woman or her relatives. The earlier provision had kept it open-ended, raising fears of misuse.
The new Bill will allow the process of reconciliation between the estranged Husband and wife. There will be provision of bail for the husband which the magistrate will give after hearing the wife, he also said.
“More than 20 Islamic countries had banned triple talaq and why not India should also do it,” he said, adding that 574 cases of triple talaq have surfaced only in the past 18 months or so and despite the Supreme Court ruling on it. The Lok Sabha had earlier passed the contentious Bill. However, the government could not get it past the Rajya Sabha.
