New Delhi: Rajya Sabha - the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, is set to debate the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018 - the revised version of the bill popularly known as Triple Talaq bill, shortly.
The amended bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The ruling BJP is in a majority in the Lok Sabha but it lacks in the needed number to pass the bill in Rajya Sabha.
Asserting that the bill has serious flaws, the opposition members including the Congress, TMC and others has called for sending the bill to a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha and they have vowed to oppose the bill if it comes to voting today.
However, the Modi government is determined to pass the bill. Sources said if the controversial bill fails the test in Rajya Sabha, the government may call a joint session of the Parliament to make sure the bill is passed.
The bill makes instant talaq a criminal offence with three year jail term. Earlier, more than 40 leadng rights bodies had urged the Rajya Sabha members to reject the bill in its present form. All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and othe Muslims NGOs have already expressed their opposition to the bill.
Those opposing the bill say that a criminal angle cannot be introduced in a civil matter, especially when there is no punishment for desertion in any other religion. They also say there is no clarity on who would provide maintenance to the wife once the husband is in jail and argue that such hardline tactics cannot bring a family together.
An earlier version of the bill was stalled by the Rajya Sabha. The government has made certain changes in the revised version, but it has not incorporated the changes demanded by the opposition, especially on the penal clause.
Pitching for the bill, Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the issue involves the lives of thousands of women and should not be subject to politics. He also stressed that it was not against any particular community.
The government had first introduced the bill in the parlaiment in 2017 after a Supreme Court banning the un-Islamic instant talaq. In a landmark verdict in August last year, the Supreme Court found the practice "arbitrary", disagreeing that it was an integral part of Islamic religious practice.
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