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Lok Sabha passes Triple Talaq Bill; Congress, AIADMK stage walkout

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Dec 27, 2018, 07:37 PM IST
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File photo Photograph:(Zee News Network)

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The Lok Sabha passed the Triple Talaq Bill with 245 votes, that aims at criminalising triple talaq. The Opposition had demanded that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, commonly known as the Triple Talaq Bill after a heated discussion in the lower house of Parliament.

The bill was passed with 245 votes in favour and 11 against. 

During the debate in the Lok Sabha, the Congress and AIADMK staged a walkout as they had called for the bill to be sent to the joint select committee.

While the government reiterated the fresh Bill, which makes the practice of triple talaq among Muslims a penal offence, is about gender equality, the opposition wanted the proposed legislation to be sent to the select committee for detailed deliberations.

Earlier, moving the Bill for passage, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Bill was not against any community, religion or belief, rather it would ensure justice to women. Pointing out that 20 Islamic countries had banned triple talaq, Prasad asked why a secular nation like India could not have this.

The fresh Bill to make the practice of triple talaq among Muslims a penal offence was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17 to replace an ordinance issued in September.

Under the proposed law, giving instant triple talaq will be illegal and void, and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.
The fresh bill will supersede an earlier bill passed in Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha. 

The earlier bill was approved by the Lower House. But amid opposition by some parties in the upper house, the government had then cleared some amendments, including the introduction of a provision of bail, to make it more acceptable.

However, as the bill continued to face resistance in the Rajya Sabha, the government issued an ordinance in September, incorporating the amendments.

An ordinance has a life of six months. But from the day a session begins, it has to be replaced by a bill which should be passed by Parliament within 42 days (six weeks), else it lapses.

The government is at liberty to re-promulgate the ordinance if the bill fails to get through Parliament.