Instant talaq a criminal offence after Upper House nod

The Bill, passed in last year’s winter session of Parliament in December, ceased to exist as the Rajya Sabha did not clear it before the Lok Sabha was dissolved. It was brought afresh by the Modi government during the current session.

A key reason for the government’s greater clout has been due to a change in the upper house’s composition, with the BJP adding more Rajya Sabha members in recent months, taking the National Democratic Alliance tally to 112 in a 241member house. It is still shy of a majority, for which its strength needs to be 121. The total capacity of the house is 245, which means there are four vacancies currently.

The BJP has been also able to get some fence-sitting regional parties, such as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), on its side. The YSR Congress Party and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which voted in favour of the government on the RTI bill, helped the ruling side on the triple talaq bill too by not being present in the House during the vote.

A key NDA constituent, the Janata Dal (United), walked out, helping the government by bringing down the total strength present and voting and therefore the required majority to pass a bill.

According to Opposition leaders, all four of BSP’S MPS, seven from the Samajwadi Party, two from the NCP as well as both MPS of the Telegu Desam Party skipped the voting. The Peoples Democratic Party said its two MPS had abstained from voting.

Several Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party, voiced concerns over the bill during a raucous debate.

Their main arguments were that since Muslim marriage is a civil contract, there is no need to make instant triple talaq a punishable crime.

The bill makes instant talaq a cognizable offence, with provisions for up to three years’ imprisonment, along with a fine. Although it stands to be a bailable offence, the bail may be granted only after hearing the wife. A cognizable offence is one for which a police officer may arrest an accused person without a warrant.

The Opposition said a key inconsistency in the bill is that jailing the offender, in this case the husband, would render him incapable of providing living expenses to the wife or their children during his imprisonment, as is required under the bill itself.

Since the Supreme Court had already invalidated triple talaq, the Opposition said, the question of maintenance did not arise, since the marriage remained intact.

“Why criminalise a civil matter? The government only made cosmetic changes to our suggestions. We had raised two main issues,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

“Why only subsistence allowance? During the period of imprisonment of the offending husband, we wanted the government to take care of the welfare of children. The law minister had told us the government would not pay a single penny,” Azad added.

Quoting the 19th century British political philosopher John Stuart Mill, lawmaker Javed Ali Khan of the SP said that without absolute necessity, nothing ought to be treated as a punishable crime.

The NCP’S Majid Memon said: “What are you going to punish the man for? Since the Supreme Court has invalidated triple talaq, the marriage continues to exist; the wife remain where she was, the marriage continues.”

Pointing out what he called a lacuna, Memon said the bill provided for maintenance, which, under Indian law, could be granted only upon dissolution of a marriage.

To the Opposition’s contention that while banning triple talaq, the Supreme Court did not ask it to be made a punishable offence, law minister Ravi Shakar Prasad said: “I want to clearly assert this House doesn’t need the mandate of the Supreme Court to pass any law.”

“If Arabic and Islamic countries can bring a change, why can’t we?” Prasad asked, referring to several Muslim countries putting limits to the practice of instant talaq.

Tearing into the Congress, Prasad said that while the Congress brought laws to criminalise dowry and brought various laws to empower women, it developed cold feet when it came to issue of Muslim women.

He brought up the issue of the Shah Bano case of the 1980s, when the then Rajiv Gandhi government brought a law to overturn a Supreme Court verdict that ordered maintenance to a Muslim woman. It did so after a backlash from Muslim conservatives, who said the court had interfered with Muslim personal laws, which they said enjoyed constitutional protection.

“Today is a great day for India’s democracy. I congratulate PM @narendramodi ji for fulfilling his commitment and ensuring a law to ban Triple Talaq, which will free Muslim women from the curse of this regressive practice. I thank all parties who supported this historic bill,” home minister Amit Shah said on Twitter.

The All India Tiger Estimation Results released Monday have put the country’s tiger count at 2,967. Chhattisgarh recorded a decrease from 46 in 2014 to 19 in 2018, mainly due to mining and left wing extremism that limits access, according to experts; Mizoram and northern West Bengal have not recorded any signs like scat DNA. Tigers were not recorded in Buxa, West Bengal, Dampa in Mizoram and Palamau in Jharkhand, where tiger signs were recorded in the 2014 census.

Another recommendation by the NTCA is co-implementing a strategy in collaboration with the Jal Shakti ministry on how tiger conservation can help in ensuring water security for the country. were being de-registered. “The new update was rolled out yesterday [Monday] evening and we started noticing user complaints today afternoon. The update rollout was immediately stopped,” he said.