Indian Muslims want revoke of triple talaq bill
Muslims in India has urged the government to withdraw its parliamentary bill that abolishes the instant triple talaq saying it goes against Shariah principle and Muslim law.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), on Sunday, after an emergency meeting, said it would oppose the bill at all levels, our New Delhi correspondent reports.
They termed the proposed legislation "dangerous" and said neither the board it nor other "true representatives" of Muslims were consulted before drawing up the bill.
AIMPLB said its president, Maulana Rabe Hasani Nadwi, would be conveying its stand to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill gives legal right to Muslim women against talaq-e-biddat or instant triple talaq. Cleared by the Indian cabinet last week, the Bill is expected to be introduced by the government in parliament next week.
The Bill will make triple talaq a cognizable and non-bailable offence and has a provision for a three-year jail term and fine for any Muslim man who divorces his wife by uttering talaq three times in quick succession.
"On Sunday, the Board examined the Bill at its emergency meeting and found that its consequences are against the welfare of Muslim women at large and will harm the interests of Muslim women and families.
It is against the principles of Shariah and an interference in Muslim personal law," AIMPLB spokesperson Maulana Khalilur Rahman Sajjad Nomani said, refuting the stated objective of the legislation of protecting the rights of married Muslim women.
He said the terms of the proposed Bill also encroach upon the guarantees given in the Constitution to religious denominations, as well as go against the essence of the Supreme Court judgment on August 22 that banned instant triple talaq.
But the government argues that the practice of instant triple talaq had not stopped despite the Supreme Court order and that the AIMPLB had not been able to do anything on the issue despite its assurances.
Nomani said "the issue is not of triple talaq. Instead, it is a big conspiracy to systematically and substantially take away the rights of talaq itself from a Muslim husband. The Muslim Personal Law Board wants this from the heart and we have also made our stand clear several times that we want to stop the practice of instant triple talaq)."
"This proposed law is going to affect Muslims at large, the effect would be against Muslim women and children, and it encroaches upon the fundamental right of equality set out in the Constitution of India," added Nomani.
Nomani said that while drafting the Bill, the parliamentary procedure of lawmaking too had been ignored, because neither the stakeholders nor the affected parties nor women organisations had been consulted.
Comments