New Delhi, July 30 : Amidst uproar and walkout Triple Talaq Bill known as Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 has been passed in the Rajya Sabha in a landmark vote with 99 votes in favour and 84 against. The practice of triple talaq will only become a criminal offence after President Ram Nath Kovind clears it.
This is a historic victory for Modi Government. The Triple Talaq bill was tabled in the upper house of the Parliament by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 aims to ban and criminalise the practice of divorce among Muslims by simply stating Talaq three times.
Members of the BSP, TRS, TDP were missing from Rajya Sabha during the voting process for the triple talaq bill. AIADMK and JD(U) had also staged walkouts earlier. Overall, PDP, AIADMK, RJD, YSR Congress, JDU, SP, BSP, NCP, AAP, TRS and Congress had opposed the Triple Talaq bill, while BJP, BJD, Shiv Sena and Sikkim’s SDF spoke in favour of the bill.
Responding to the triple talaq debate in Rajya Sabha, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that the House did not need the mandate of the Supreme Court to pass a law.
He said that a woman had recently approaching him because her husband had given her triple talaq over WhatsApp. “Should I tell these women that you frame the Supreme Court judgment? If they go to the police, they’ll be told that if there is no law then they can’t file an FIR. I’m a minister in the Narendra Modi government and not the Rajiv Gandhi government. If there is a need for justice, we will bring a law on it,” he said.
“You spoke a lot today, Ghulam Nabi Azad. You (Congress) won 400 seats in 1986. There have been nine Lok Sabha elections after that, you did not get majority in any of them. Think why did that happen? You were 44 in 2014, 52 today. In 1986 you rose to 400, Shah Bano’s case happened in 1986 and you never received a majority after that. I am giving you a food for thought,” Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the Rajya Sabha.
On Opposition parties questioning the jail term in the case of triple talaq, Prasad justified the move by citing the jail terms in anti-dowry law and for Hindu men marrying second time.
