Anti-talaq Bill draconian: AIMPLB women’s wing

Anti-talaq Bill draconian: AIMPLB women’s wing

Context

Protests against Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017

Present status of the bill: Passed in LokSabha, Pending inn RajyaSabha

Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017

• The Bill makes all declaration of talaq, including in written or electronic form, to be void (i.e. not enforceable in law) and illegal.  It defines talaq as talaq-e-biddat or any other similar form of talaq pronounced by a Muslim man resulting in instant and irrevocable divorce.  Talaq-e-biddat refers to the practice under Muslim personal laws where pronouncement of the word ‘talaq’ thrice in one sitting by a Muslim man to his wife results in an instant and irrevocable divorce.

• Offence and penalty: The Bill makes declaration of talaq a cognizable and non-bailable offence.  (A cognizable offence is one for which a police officer may arrest an accused person without warrant.)  A husband declaring talaq can be imprisoned for up to three years along with a fine

• Allowance:  A Muslim woman against whom talaq has been declared, is entitled to seek subsistence allowance from her husband for herself and for her dependent children.  The amount of the allowance will be decided by a First Class Magistrate.
• Custody of minor children:  A Muslim woman against whom such talaq has been declared, is entitled to seek custody of her minor children.  The determination of custody will be made by the Magistrate

Why there are protests over the triple Talaq bill?

• Main contention: If the man is arrested and put behind bars for three years, who will look after his family and provide them maintenance?”Criminal prosecution of the husband will result in ending the marriage without securing the wife with a surety of her economic rights. It is believed that this Bill might end up suffering similar flaw as in case of section 498A
• The matter is also anti-social as a civil contract is penalised by converting a civil matter into a criminal offence
• Though the bill seeks to bring the Muslim women on equal footing by ensuring they get their due share of rights. It favorswomen to get the custody of the children accompanied with the obligation on the husband to pay sustenance allowance to the wife and children
• By making the practice of triple talaq a cognizable offence under the Muslim Women Bill, it gives police officers the power to conduct an investigation without bringing it to the notice of the concerned magistrate forthwith, the moment a police officer receives a complaint, without waiting for the magistrate’s order. This has raised the fear of Muslim men becoming soft targets, who the police can arbitrarily throw in jail for three years based on anybody’s complaint
• Bill talks of post-divorce matters ignoring the fact that the pronouncement (instant talaq) has already been voided in S.3 and cannot result in a divorce

Way forward

• Rather than criminalization, the legislature should have adopted the path of including Triple Talaq as an act of infliction of domestic violence under the ambit of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 wherein it could have been categorized as verbal and emotional abuse covered under section 3 of the act