Islamic experts should have been consulted, AIUDF on triple talaq bill

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 that seeks to criminalise instant divorce, triple talaq, continues to garner mixed reactions ahead of being tabled in the Rajya Sabha.

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MP Ajmal Badruddin said the issue should have been consulted with Islamic experts before drafting of the Bill.

"This is an Islamic matter, and it should have been discussed with Islamic experts, AIMPLB, and all major ulemas (body of scholars), but the government did nothing of this sort," Badruddin said and added that there were other ways of upliftment given that only two lakh cases of triple talaq have cropped up in the nation.

"To uplift Muslims, you (government) should instead focus on their education and employment; they will naturally incline towards you," he said.

The parliamentarian also accused Centre of harbouring political motives. "Now they have made one woman (Ishrat Jahan) who had filed a case against triple talaq join BJP. This clearly shows they have political motives."

Meanwhile, Congress has maintained its partial support to the Bill.

"We have always maintained that we are against the discriminatory practice of triple talaq, but this bill has been introduced in a rush and many minute details have been ignored," Congress Lok Sabha member Ranjeet Ranjan told ANI.

"On one hand, you are sending the man to jail, but on the other hand there is no clarification about who will provide maintenance for the woman and her child, so there are many loopholes," she further said.

Ranjan also called for a ban on the practice instead of its criminalisation.

"It is a civil matter. Instead of criminalising it, the government should have simply banned it. The Supreme Court says it is illegal and you give the example of 22 countries, but these 22 countries have banned the practice."

"I have complete faith that the Bill will be sent to a special committee," she added.

However, women's activist Shabnam Khan extended complete support to the bill, reasoning that the issue of the divorcee woman's expenses raised by opposition now also existed when triple talaq was in place.

"The law minister has said it very clearly that in all cases that are submitted before the Magistrate, it is the Magistrate who will decide who has to incur the expenses of the woman and her children," she added.

The Bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha and is likely to be tabled in Rajya Sabha today.

Congress, the leading opposition party in the Rajya Sabha, has objected to the imprisonment and maintenance clauses of the Bill, and is pushing for it to be sent to the standing committee or a select committee to remove contentious clauses.