ABill on triple talaq, a practice banned in 20 Islamic countries, would again be brought in the Parliament to scrap the continuation of discriminatory tradition of instant divorce to wife by Muslim male in India.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who assumed office of his Ministry said the Government will bring a Bill to ban the practice in the Parliament session of 17th Lok Sabha.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill which could not be passed in the Parliament as it was not backed by the Congress and some other opposition parties in the upper house, objecting to the provision of arrest of husband, had lapsed after having been passed in the lower house. The bill had made triple talaq a non-bailable offence.
The Government had subsequently made some changes in the bill which provided that husband would be arrested only on the complaint of his wife or blood relatives. It also allowed bail for husband during the trial period. A provision was added to allow the magistrate to grant bail “after hearing the wife”.
While the bill made it a “non-bailable” offence, an accused could approach a magistrate even before trial to seek bail. In a non-bailable offence, bail cannot be granted by police at the police station itself.
Those bill which are introduced in the Rajya Sabha do not lapse with the dissolution of the Lok sabha but same is not the case with the bill which are introduced in the lower house.
Asked whether the bill on triple talaq would be brought again, Prasad said, “Obviously. (The issue of) triple talaq is part of our (BJP) manifesto. Why not?”
Responding to a question on uniform civil code, he said the government would hold “political consultations” on the issue even as he goes through the Law Commission report on the issue.
On August 31 last year, the law panel had issued a consultation paper instead of a full-fledged report on the issue, saying a uniform civil code is “neither necessary nor desirable” at this stage. It had suggested changes in laws relating to marriage, divorce, alimony, and marriageable age for men and women.
The government had promulgated the ordinance on triple talaq twice.
Under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance, 2019, divorcing through instant triple talaq will be illegal, void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.
A Bill to convert the earlier ordinance, issued in September 2018, was cleared by the Lok Sabha in December and was pending in the Rajya Sabha
Since the Bill could not get parliamentary approval, a fresh ordinance was issued. These amendments were cleared by the Cabinet on August 29, 2018.