DEADLOCK ON, TALAQ BILL MAY BE DEFERRED TO BUDGET SESSION

NEWDELHI: The contentious triple talaq bill is likely to be deferred to the budget session of Parliament, with the Opposition insisting the legislation be referred to a select committee and the government rejecting the demand again on Thursday, the penultimate day of the winter session.

The House had to be adjourned for the day as the two sides refused to budge on the bill that seeks to criminalise the Muslim divorce practice of instant triple talaq.

The bill, which proposes up to three years in jail and a penalty for violators, has been passed by the Lok Sabha, where the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has a majority. It was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Union minister Arun Jaitley said the resolutions moved by the Opposition to send the Muslim women (protection of rights on marriage) bill to a select committee were not according to rules.

The Congress said the deadlock could be resolved if the government were to make provisions for financial aid to Muslim women if their husbands were sent to jail.

“We are in favour of the bill but we are opposed to the provision of imprisonment of the husbands. Who will take care of the family?” leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

The ruling coalition is short of numbers in the Upper House, and that has allowed parties such as the Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC), which backed the bill in Lok Sabha, to drive a hard bargain. Congress’s Anand Sharma and TMC’s Sukhendu Sekhar Roy wanted their resolutions, moved on Wednesday, for referring the bill to a select committee to be taken up before any other business.