New Delhi | Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a meeting with BJP core group in the Parliament before the introduction of the Triple Talaq Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were present in the meeting.
The contentious triple talaq bill seeking to criminalise instant divorce is set to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha even as the Congress said it will not allow the passage of the proposed legislation in its present form. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will table the bill in the Upper House after it was cleared by the Lok Sabha on Thursday amid a walkout by the Opposition. The bill was passed by the Lower House with 245 voting in favour and 11 opposing it. Prasad had on Friday claimed that the bill will find support in Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA lacks numbers. It is listed in the Rajya Sabha’s legislative agenda for Monday.
A fresh Bill to make the practice of triple talaq among Muslims a penal offence was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17 to replace an ordinance issued in September. Under the proposed law, giving instant triple talaq will be illegal and void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 would supersede an earlier Bill passed in the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha.
An earlier bill was approved by the Lower House. But amid opposition by some parties in the Upper House, the government had cleared some amendments, including the introduction of a provision of bail, to make it more palatable. But as the Bill continued to face resistance in the Rajya Sabha, the government issued an ordinance in September, incorporating amendments.
In a landmark 3-2 verdict in August last year, the Supreme Court found the practice of “triple talaq” un-Islamic and “arbitrary”, and disagreed that it was an integral part of religious practices.
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