The Congress is likely to demand the bill be referred to a standing committee. Women’s groups could challenge it in court if enacted.
New Delhi: The controversial bill criminalising instant triple talaq is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha Friday even as some key political parties are yet to finalise their position on it and pressure builds outside Parliament to block the move.
The bill has been listed in the agenda papers for the lower house Friday although PTI reported parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar as saying that the bill would be introduced next week.
But a source in Congress told ThePrint that the party will demand the bill be referred to a standing committee, indicating that the main opposition party would resort to buying time.
“This bill is not about triple talaq, but about criminalising talaq. We are not opposed to the bill, but we think it should be made workable,” Congress MP Sushmita Deb said, reflecting some of that confusion in the party.
The government is also facing criticism from organisations representing Muslims and women for not consulting the people who are expected to be affected by the bill before going ahead with its move to criminalise it.
The bill, which seeks three years of imprisonment for the husband for pronouncing instant triple talaq and grants a subsistence allowance and custody of minor children to the wife, has raised several questions.
If instant triple talaq has already been invalidated by the Supreme Court, it means resorting to it has no consequence on the marriage. Then where do the questions of maintenance and custody come from, senior advocate Indira Jaising asked.
“This bill conflates religion with citizenship. The right to equality in marriage flows from citizenship, not religion,” she said. “It’s time for us to clearly enunciate the wall of separation between the two.”
Bebaak Collective, which had intervened in the apex court case in support of the plea to outlaw instant triple talaq, met more than 15 Muslim MPs recently to build consensus against criminalising the practice.
The collective had welcomed the Supreme Court judgment invalidating the practice but has vociferously criticised the government’s move to criminalise it. “If the marriage is a civil contract, how can it be made a criminal offence?” the collective’s founder Hasina Khan asked. “This bill does nothing for Muslim women.”
The bill also deems a crime under the act as a cognisable and non-bailable crime. This means the police would be well within their rights to arrest a Muslim man accused by anyone (and not just the affected party i.e. the wife) of triple talaq on the basis of a rumour, argued Jaising. “No personal law in the country has been of such nature before,” she said.
Organisations such as the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Bebaak Collective and the All India Democratic Women’s Association, along with a few opposition MPs allege that the ruling party’s intentions are to criminalise Muslim men.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and government ministers have insisted that the move is about ensuring gender justice and has nothing to do with religion. Sources in the government, however, said that there are dissenting voices in the government too.
Although the women and child development ministry has gone on record to say that it is completely on board with the government on the bill, a highly placed source in the government said that WCD minister Maneka Gandhi has expressed some reservations regarding criminalising the practise.
Gandhi, incidentally, was not part of the Group of Ministers set up in August to draft the bill.
The women’s groups support the Congress plan to get the bill referred to standing committee. But it could also be challenged in the Supreme Court if enacted, Jaising said. “All I want to say is that it’s not the end game,” she said.