Asaduddin Owaisi opposes bill seeking to criminalise instant triple talaq, says law will affect social cohesion

A bill seeking to criminalise instant triple talaq among Muslims was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday.

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Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has opposed the bill seeking to criminalise instant triple talaq.

He has said that it would have severe consequences on rule of law and social cohesion in the country.

In a letter to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, he voiced concern over the attempt to table the bill in Parliament without consultation.

Owaisi demanded that the government hold consultation with All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on the bill as it was the main party in the batch of writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court on triple talaq.

He said that the government`s attempt to expedite the introduction of the bill without any effort to appreciate the legal nuances involved is of deep concern.

The Hyderabad MP described it as an attempt to demonise the Muslim community in the garb of "saving" and "protecting" Muslim women.

"It is regrettable that a constitutional value as important as gender justice is being used to merely further cynical political goals," he wrote, IANS reported.

Owaisi said it was absurd that a special law was being considered when existing legislation sufficiently provides appropriate remedies to Muslim women who are at receiving end of triple talaq.

A bill seeking to criminalise instant triple talaq among Muslims and providing for a three-year jail term was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 got the Cabinet nod at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad refused to give details of the Bill at a media briefing on the ground that Parliament was in session. He merely said many state governments, to whom the draft of the bill was sent, had supported the Bill. 

He said it was designed to shield the helpless victims of triple talaq and to give them dignity and security. 

"Cabinet has taken historic decisions today which will have a long-term impact in the growth of the country... because Parliament session is on, I cannot give details of the Bill," Prasad said.

"We approved The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which is to protect victims of triple talaq," he added.

According to the draft bill sent out to states earlier this month, it was proposed that triple talaq be made a cognisable and non-bailable offence that would attract a jail term of three years.

The draft law was prepared in the backdrop of the August 22 verdict of the SC striking down the practice of "instant" triple talaq as illegal.

The court had also held that triple talaq was not integral to Islam.

The bill is expected to be introduced during the Winter Session of Parliament that commenced on Friday. 

(With IANS inputs)