Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu has hailed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, known as Triple Talaq Bill, passed by the Parliament making the Muslim practice of instant divorce punishable.
The passage of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill through the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday makes pronouncement of instant oral talaq or talaq-e-biddat void and illegal and criminalise it as a cognizable offence punishable with up to three years in jail.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha last week.
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“This is a historic bill brought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its safe passage through both the Houses proves its relevance as for decades women of the Muslim community were deprived of their rights as enshrined in our Constitution,” Khandu said in a statement here on Wednesday.
He said once the President gives his assent to the bill, the new law will formally be notified and a new chapter of equality and gender justice would be scripted in the history of India.
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“For years our sisters of the Muslim community were subjected to injustice through this archaic clause that allowed a Muslim man to legally divorce his wife by stating the word talaq three times in oral, written, or more recently, electronic form,” said Khandu.
“It needed a reformist like Modiji to consign the practice to the dustbin of history,” he asserted.
The CM also attributed the success of the bill to the years of struggle and opposition by millions of Muslim women of the country.
It may be mentioned that several women had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court against the practice, terming it ‘regressive’.
The petitioners had asked for section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, to be scrapped, describing it as being against Article 14 of the Constitution of India (equality before law).
“Even the Supreme Court during the hearings had described the practice as ‘worst form of marriage dissolution,” Khandu pointed.
While expressing gratitude to the Prime Minister and the Parliamentarians, the CM congratulated women of the Muslim community and hailed their resilience against the medieval practice and keeping their faith on the Constitution.