AIMPLB urges Rajya Sabha not to pass Triple Talaq bill in present form

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Tuesday urged the Rajya Sabha not to pass the Triple Talaq bill - scheduled to come up in the Upper House on Wednesday - in its present form and instead send it to a Select Committee for better scrutiny.

Calling the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 as "inhuman" and "faulty", the Board said it would only break marriages rather than empowering women and was a "direct blow on the family system and the institution of marriage".

"The bill is being brought apparently for 'empowering Muslim women', but its provisions defeat its very purpose. On mere allegation of the wife, the husband is jailed. This is against criminal jurisprudence," AIMPLB's women wing convenor Asma Zohra said in a statement.

She said the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 was much more empowering to women where a woman gets the right to reside in the same home.

"How can there be two different yardsticks of benefits/privileges for divorcee women - one for those divorced by talaq-e-ahsan and those divorced by talaq-e-biddat?

"The custody of children of women divorced by standard procedure decided on 'welfare of child' basis as per Parents and Guardians Act but women divorced through talaq-e-biddat shall be entitled to the custody of their children as per the new bill. Is this not against right to equality and children rights?" she said.

"We oppose and reject this bill and appeal to the Rajya Sabha members to send it to a select committee for legal scrutiny," she added.

--IANS

mak/mr