All India Muslim Personal law Board (AIMPlB) members will meet senior leaders of Muslim community on December 17 in Delhi to formulate a response on the proposed ‘Mulsim Women (Protection of rights on marriage) Bill, 2017’ to be tabled in the Pprliament. The Bill seeks to make instant triple talaq (Talaq-e-biddat) illegal and a punishable offence. So far 13 states have endorsed the Bill.
The AIMPlB is not happy with the NDA government’s move to rush with the bill as neither the Board nor any Muslim outfit or prominent Islamic scjolars were consulted before its drafting. The BJP during the run up to the poll campaign for Assembly elections this year had made Triple Talaq a major electoral issue.
“A meeting of AIMPlB office-bearers and some other important Muslim leaders is to be held on December 17, which will decide about the response of Muslims to this Bill,” said Board secretary Zafaryaab Jilani.
“We were not consulted by the Union government in drafting of the Bill nor do we have any official intimation from the Centre about it. I got information about the proposed Bill from the state government on December 8,’’ said Jilani.
Jilani said representatives of Jamat-e- Islami, Jamait Ulma Hind, Milli Council, Darul Uloom Deoband, and leaders of Barelivi Sunni muslim sect from Bareilly and Mubarakpur (Azamgarh) and All India Majlis Ittehadul Musalmeen MP Asaduddin Owasi etc will participate in the meeting.
Earlier AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi opposed the bill and wrote to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing his concern that an important issue like gender justice was being used to further cynical political goals.
Women’s groups such as All India Muslim Women’s Personal law Board and Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) welcomed the Union cabinet’s decision to clear a law that would criminalise instant triple talaq. The Union cabinet on Friday had cleared legislation of the Bill which is expected to be tabled in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament.
The AIMPlB has maintained a contradictory stand on the issue saying that triple talaq was sinful but valid as per Shariat law. On August 25, the Supreme Court quashed the practice of instantaneous triple talaq and observed that `something which did not have an Islamic sanction and since it was a sinful practice, it could not be valid in the eyes of law.
“We welcome this Bill and we would want this to be discussed in the Parliament and opened for wider consultations,” said All India Muslim Women’s Personal law Board president Shaista Amber. She has been at the forefront of demands for reforms in Muslim personal law.
“We also want a codified Muslim family law that would be within the ambit of Quran and comply with the Constitution of India, somewhat on the lines of Hindu Code law and Christian Personal law that was also reformed with regard to gender equity,” she said.