New Delhi: Though the government has managed to pass the triple talaq bill in the Lok Sabha, the legislation faces sterner test in the Rajya Sabha with the oppositionall set to create a blockade on December 31.
According to sources, a dozen leaders of opposition parties with over 100 MPs in Rajya Sabha would be meeting on December 31 at Parliament in the morning.
The members plan to move a resolution under rule 125 of Rajya Sabha to send the triple talaq bill to Select Committee for more scrutiny.
According to Rule 125, any member may move an amendment stating that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee and following this, the Bill shall be referred to the committee.
While the triple talaq Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi opposed it vehemently, claiming it was an attack on the constitutional rights of Muslims.
Owaisi questioned the intent behind the government’s criminalising triple talaq but not opposing the decriminalisation of homosexuality. “If sexual minorities have been given a choice in Section 377, then why are religious minorities not getting any choice?” he asked.
The Congress, which was first represented in the debate by Sushmita Dev, picked on the maintenance aspect of the Bill, arguing that maintenance for the women who had been given triple talaq wasn't adequately defined.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that the bill be sent to a Select Committee. Sudip Bandyopadhya of TMC also put forward a similar request.
The fresh Bill to make the practice of triple talaq among Muslims a penal offence was introduced in 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 one passed in the 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.
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