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New Delhi: The BJD today opposed the introduction of the Triple Talaq Bill with senior leader of the party Bhartruhari Mahtab terming the bill as faulty.
The government today tabled the triple talaq bill, which criminalises instant divorce, in the Lok Sabha. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 makes instant triple talaq a non-bailable offence with imprisonment of up to three years in jail.
Participating in the discussion, BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab stated that, “it is not Muslim versus others issue rather it is the framing of the bill which is faulty. This is a flawed bill.”
It is said in Section 3 that any pronouncement of Talaq by person upon his wife by words, either spoken, written or in electronic or any other manner whatsoever , shall be considered void and illegal.
Subsequently, section 3, 4 and 7 of the bill states that a person who pronounces such Talaq shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three or five years and the offence should be cognizable and non-bailable.
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This amounts to gross misreading of the August, 2017 Supreme Court judgment which netrualized the legal effect of instant Talaq and rendered it bad in law. But the proposed bill presumes that the pronouncement of Talaq can instantaneously and irrevocably dissolve the marriage and proceeds to void it in section 3.
“This begs the question of how after rendering Talaq, it will be inoperative in section 3 and its oratory pronouncement be considered cognizable and non-bailable offence in section 4 and 7. Can a law criminalize an Act after conceding that it doesn’t result in crime?,” asked Mahtab.
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There are internal contradictions in the Bill, particularly glaring in sections 5 and 6.
“The anxiety to bring in a bill is actually doing disservice to women of the Muslim community. Our party (BJD) supports empowerment of women. The judgement of the Supreme Court is what needs to be reflected in the bill. But what we find is that the bill is riddled with many contradictions.
Does Triple Talaq has any legal basis today? This bill will only bring harvest to more number of cases to court and hence the bill needs reconsideration and needs to be redrafted, Mahtab added.
