BILL GIVING 3YR JAIL TERM FOR INSTANT TRIPLE TALAQ IN LS SOON

NEWDELHI: A proposed new law to ban instant triple talaq has been circulated among members of Parliament on Wednesday, indicating that the Narendra Modi government may table the bill in the Lok Sabha this week.

As reported earlier on December 2, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 criminalises instant triple talaq, or talaq-e-biddat, and imposes a prison term of up to three years on husbands who violate the law.

It also makes a provision for alimony for the woman on whom instant triple talaq has been pronounced and grants her the custody of her children.

In a historic judgment on August 22, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court struck down instant triple talaq as illegal.

Justifying the need for the bill, the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the legislation circulated among members of the house says, “The legislation would help in ensuring the larger constitutional goals of gender justice and gender equality of married Muslim women and help subserve their fundamental rights of non-discrimination and empowerment.”

Clause 3 of the bill says, “Any pronouncement of talaq by a person upon his wife, by words, either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner whatsoever, shall be void and illegal.”

The document says that in spite of the Supreme Court setting aside talaq-e-biddat, there have been reports of divorce by way of instant triple talaq from different parts of the country.