Hasty step
Triple talaq law needed to undergo legislative scrutiny
Last month, the government introduced a slew of changes to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill. It removed the clause that allowed anyone to file an FIR about a triple talaq case, and made the offence cognisable only if the complaint was filed by the victim or her relatives. A magistrate was also allowed to compound the offence if the husband and wife arrived at a compromise.
These changes watered down the Bill’s most contentious provision, its criminality clause, and seemed to signal the government’s inclination to forge a consensus on a fraught issue. But these amendments were issued on the penultimate day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session, and there was scarcely any time to debate them in the Rajya Sabha. The matter was deferred to the Winter Session. Unfortunately, however, on Wednesday, the government decided to short-circuit the legislative process and took the route of an ordinance to criminalise triple talaq.
The ordinance makes “triple talaq null and void” and will land the offending husband in jail for three years. The dilutions to the criminality clause, that were introduced last month, do constitute the core of the new law. However, by all accounts, several of the Opposition’s reservations remain unaddressed. The Congress has reportedly criticised the provision that puts the onus of proving the pronouncement of triple talaq on the wife, while Muslim leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi have said it’s wrong to make the practice a penal offence. The government has wielded the argument of gender justice to make a case for the ordinance, and has blamed the Opposition for its intransigence.
The discriminatory nature of triple talaq is, of course, undeniable, but the government’s approach flattens an issue that has more than one dimension. The political environment in the country has given rise to fears that the triple talaq issue is a ruse to stamp majoritarianism. With Muslims becoming vulnerable and targets of violence, such fears are not unfounded.