NEW DELHI: Keen on enacting the legislation, the government has got the bill on criminalising triple talaq listed in the Rajya Sabha for consideration on Monday, giving it the top priority notwithstanding the fact that it may find it difficult to get the bill through.
However, All India Congress Committee general secretary K C Venugopal on Saturday said the Congress party will not allow triple talaq bill to be passed in the Rajya Sabha.
With 245 voting in favour and 11 opposing, the Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, that makes instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat a criminal offence.
Several Opposition parties are against the bill’s provision that recommends a jail term of up to three years with a fine and wants the bill to be referred to a select committee of both Houses of Parliament for detailed consideration which the government is not ready to concede. With numbers on its side, the Opposition can succeed in getting the Bill referred to a select committee.
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In the Lok Sabha, when the bill was passed, the opposition has greater numbers, given the fact that BJP’s friendly party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and other parties along Congress opposing the legislation walked out of the House when it was about to vote the Bill after government rejected the demand for referring to a joint select committee.
“The Opposition will not support the passing of triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha,” Mathrubhumi quoted the Congress MP as saying. “All 10 opposition parties had expressed their disapproval when the bill was presented in the Lok Sabha. The government declined our demands to forward the bill to a standing committee for approval.”
The AIADMK, which is a potential election ally of the BJP, has also signed the demand for reference of the Bill for the committee’s consideration in the Rajya Sabha. The AIADMK apparently believes that supporting the Bill would not go well with its supporters in the Muslim community, which the late Jayalalithaa had assiduously built.
AIADMK sources said that the party’s opposition to the Bill in the Lok Sabha was its considered decision and not the decision of its member Anwar Rajhaa, who spoke on the Bill.
The bill and the statutory legislation opposing the ordinance, which it seeks to replace, have been listed together to be taken up on Monday after the weekend recess.
Exactly, a year ago the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha but its passage was scuttled in the Upper House by the Opposition.
With agency inputs