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29 Mar 2024, Edition - 3181, Friday

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Cabinet passes triple talaq ordinance as bill remains pending in Rajya Sabha

indiatoday.in

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The Union Cabinet has given its approval to an ordinance on triple talaq even though a bill on the issue is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress-led Opposition has been demanding that the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 be sent to a select committee of Parliament for further scrutiny.

The bill criminalises the practice of instant talaq and could not be taken up for discussion and passage even on the last day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session.

The ordinance was okayed at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. It will now be sent to the President for his assent. Once it gets the President’s approval, the ordinance will come into effect.

Once the ordinance comes into force, it has to be approved by Parliament within six months. If the government fails to do this, the ordinance has to be repromulgated, which means that the Cabinet has to issue the ordinance again and get the President’s assent.

In August 2017, the Supreme Court in a landmark verdict had held that the practice of triple talaq violates the Constitutional rights of Muslim women.

After the Supreme Court verdict, the Modi government decided to introduce a bill to criminalise the practice. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December last year.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Cabinet’s decision, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma said, “We were ready to discuss the issue with the government. But they failed to reach out to opposition leaders. This is their style of functioning.”

In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had blamed the Opposition for the delay in passing on the triple talaq bill. He had said that his government tried to bring the bill in Parliament during the Monsoon Session but the Opposition created roadblocks in its passage in the Rajya Sabha.

“There are some people who do not want it [the bill] to be passed,” Modi said.

“I assure Muslim sisters and daughters that their rights will be protected and the government will not leave any effort to protect them. I promise and assure that I shall fulfill your aspirations,” the prime minister had said.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the core component of the ordinance of triple talaq is that it will make the offence cognisable only when the FIR is filed by the wife or her blood relatives.

He said the ordinance provides that the mother/victim wife must get the custody of the minor child and she will be entitled to a maintenance for herself and the child. The maintenance amount will be decided by the magistrate concerned.

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