The Rajya Sabha on Monday is set to witness a fierce showdown between the Treasury benches and Opposition when the controversial triple talaq Bill seeking to criminalise the practice of instant divorce among Muslims will come up for passage.
The Congress-led Opposition is pushing for sending the Bill to the joint-select committee for trimming its harsh provisions.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will table the Bill in the Upper House. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 was cleared by the Lok Sabha — 245 voting in favour and 11 opposing it — on Thursday amid a walkout by the Opposition. Prasad had on Friday claimed the Bill will find support in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA lacks numbers.
In case, the Opposition is to block the Bill in the Upper House, summoning the joint-session of the two Houses to pass the Bill would be the last option with the ruling party.
The Bill, as passed by the Lok Sabha, makes instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) in any form — spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and instant messengers — illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband.
Declared illegal in about 20 Muslim countries, the instant talaq was only recently declared against law in India by the order of the Supreme Court.
After the Opposition stalled the Bill in the Rajya Shaba in earlier session, the Government made changes and introduced provision for magistrate allowing bail to husband (indulging in triple-talaq) with the consent of his wife.
The Congress claims that making the offense a non-bailable would put the family of the instant talaq offender (the husband) in disarray and thus provision should be deleted.
The demand for declaring instant talaq illegal has for long been raised by a large section of Muslim women who are at the receiving end. Many cases of triple-talaq have come to light even after the Supreme Court declaring it as illegal.
Citing details of instant triple talaq cases, the Government had last week informed the Lok Sabha that till now 430 incidents of triple talaq have come to the notice of the Government through the media.
Of these, 229 were reported before the Supreme Court judgment, while another 201 came to the notice after it.
Both the BJP and the Congress have issued whips in the Upper House asking their members to be present in full strength when the Bill is introduced.