Triple Talaq Bill-Bold Political Move by BJP

Bold political move of BJP-Triple Talaq bill

Since second century of Islamic era Muslim women have born the brunt of autocratic personal laws. They were treated as a commodity available at a disposal of men in the name of old Muslim personal/marriage rules.

It is a known fact that world over law is derived from customs and more or less law is framed over common sensical approach of law makers. Ancient Muslim rulers have always aimed at increasing population base by creating large population for enhancing the community strength. Hence BIGAMY was allowed keeping this in mind.

One of the major atrocities Indian Muslim women have faced over a long period of time are “Divorce laws”. Mere uttering of 3 words will result in ending of marital relationship with no recourse available to women or their children.

If we study Muslim talaq laws we will find that the only decision maker or the Initiators for giving talaq are men.

Divorce laws in muslims i.e Talaq - ul - Sunnat has been divided into three categories:

TALAQ AHSAN	TALAQ HASAN	TALAQ  - E- BIDDAT
Husband pronounces talaq once and wait for 3 menstrual cycle of women (iddat period) without any cohabitation & talaq takes place and marriage dissolves.	Husband pronounce  talaq on every menstrual cycle till completion of three continuous cycle and then marriage dissolves.	Husband pronounce  talaq thrice in one sitting.Sometimes even on phone or text message and marriage dissolves.

In all the aforesaid forms woman's consent or resistance is immaterial and holds no value in the talaq process. Through these autocratic form, woman is merely dependent on whims, fancies and decisions of men whereas in one form ie talaq - i- tafweez, women can purchase divorce from husband, but here also husband's consent is essential.

Since Independence there have been many debates over abolition of this autocratic way of granting talaq but no political will could take this bold step as they fear backlashes in muslim community thereby affecting their vote base.

MERITS AND DEMERITS OF TRIPLE TALAQ BILL

Muslim Women (Protection of rights on marriage), 2017 Bill has the intention to protect the rights of Muslim women by declaring triple talaq or Talaq-e-Biddat illegal, void & criminalising the act. There is provision of 3 years imprisonment for the one who pronounces triple talaq to his wife.

MERITS:-

1. The bill seeks to provide legal validity to the SC ruling which declared triple talaq as void & illegal

2. The bill by providing the provision of subsistence allowance & compensation to the muslim women, victim of talaq, aim to provide financial & mental security to the Muslim women.

3.  Making triple talaq a non-bailable and cognizable offence seeks to deter the Muslim men from pronouncing triple talaq or any form of instantaneous & irrevocable talaq.

4. The bill can provide a way towards empowering Muslim women

DEMERITS:-

1. The provisions of the bill can be used as a weapon of torture against Muslim men

2. Some people claim that the bill seeks to restrict the Right to divorce of the Muslim men

3. There are contradictions in the bill. Where section 3 declares triple talaq as void, sections 5&6 talks about subsistence allowance & post-divorce provisions.

4. Some people protest against the bill as the views of different stakeholders have not been taken while drafting the bill.

The question arises:

1. “When the man pronouncing triple talaq will go to jail then who will provide compensation & take care of his wife & children?”

2. “Treating divorce, a civil act as criminal offence,  raises question”

OPPOSITION

The opposition parties did come together to demand that the Bill to be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice for further scrutiny.  The Congress, while extending support to the bill, had sought amendments, including a corpus to provide maintenance to divorced women awaiting compensation and removal of the criminality clause in the legislation.

The Opposition is regrouping in the Rajya Sabha to get the Bill referred to a select committee. Though regional parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties have a combined strength of 60 in the 245-member Upper House, The Bill will also depend on the stand taken by the Congress, which has 57 members. A section in the party believes it should press the government to send the Bill to a parliamentary panel but a final decision is awaited.

BJP position

The Government can claim victory in uplifting the status of married Muslim women by championing the Triple Talaq (triple divorce) Bill; it has also been silently working to increase the rewards for young Muslim girls in India.

'This bill is a historic step towards ensuring dignity for Muslim women. Recently BJP chief Amit Shah expressed the importance of bill on twitter platform by thanking all fellow Parliamentarians who have supported this bill, which will bring a new era of hope and respect in the lives of Muslim women.

Law Minister said the BJP which is a strong votary of the abolition of instant triple talaq among Muslims, a practice declared void by the Supreme Court last year on about the issue of women justice and dignity.

There were only muted protests from opposition parties which put their reservations on record but did not really push for amendments, knowing that the BJP had the numbers to overrule them.

The BJP strongly supports the abolition of instant triple talaq, which has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The bill proposes a three-year jail term and a possible fine for any Muslim man guilty of the offence.

Recent OBC commission act may help BJP to consolidate its support amongst backward classes by giving constitutional status to the OBC and making them more powerful.

The BJP had asked all opposition parties to help pass the Triple Talaq Bill in Parliament. 

It is a known fact that for so many years, politics took precedence over women’s rights. Now, when a historical step is taken in the Parliament for the empowerment of women with the passing of the Triple Talaq Bill, it faces resistance from opposition for a simple reason that this law will make BJP popular amongst Muslim women vote base.

Since the beginning of the issue, scholars have suggested that rather than criminalising, the legislature should have adopted the path of including it as an act of infliction of domestic violence under the ambit of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, wherein, it could have been categorized as verbal and emotional abuse, covered under S.3 of Act. This would provide a greater number of avenues to the women folk to seek resort to against the injustice inflicted on them due to the arbitrarily attitude of their husbands. This would have opened up the path of multiple reliefs like protection against violence, right to residence in the marital home, maintenance, medical facility and compensation, etc.

These options are not available under the current Bill, which only consists of a provision of 3 years of jail imprisonment for the husband. Though the bill seeks to bring the Muslim women on equal footing by ensuring they get their due share of rights. It favours the women to get the custody of the children accompanied with the obligation on the husband to pay sustenance allowance to his wife and his children. However, the Bill suffers from some inherent flaws which arose firstly because at the time of its drafting it was not consulted with the Muslim women and the AIMPLB.

Women’s rights activists have pointed out that the penalizing might discourage reporting of instant triple talaq, or worse still, may lead to desertion of the wife by the husband without technically giving instant triple talaq.

A man criminalized for trying to pronounce Triple Talaq by the wife, taken to jail will not accept his wife after getting released and this still keeps the women’s condition the same. Thus this bill has not provided any kind of rehabilitation program for the Muslim women.

Since Independence it is only now that the current political leadership has shown the spine and courage to empower muslim women in real terms.

Author

Prateek Som

Advocate, Delhi High Court

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