'Big move to empower women', 'unconstitutional': Cabinet approves triple talaq ordinance

'Big move to empower women', 'unconstitutional': Reactions pour in as Cabinet approves triple talaq ordinance

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ordinance making instant triple talaq a punishable offence, after the government failed to pass a law on the practice in Parliament. The government took the ordinance route to include provisions on triple talaq in the Muslim Women Protection of Rights in Marriage Act, which was cleared by the Lok Sabha in 2017 and is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

The move has elicited reactions from both extremes.

Ishrat Jahan — one of the the five petitioners in the triple talaq case in the Supreme Court — welcomed the Cabinet's decision. It is a big step towards "empowering Muslim women" in the country, she said. adding that Muslim men and religious leaders should now mend "their ways or be ready to face the music".

"I welcome the Centre's decision to bring an ordinance to make triple talaq a penal offence. It is a huge step towards empowering Muslim women in the country," Jahan said.

On 22 August, 2017, the Supreme Court had struck down the Islamic practice of triple talaq and declared it unconstitutional. Jahan had moved the court after her husband divorced her over the phone from Dubai in 2014 by uttering "talaq" three times. She has a 13-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son.

Owaisi flays move, calls ordinance anti-women

Unlike Jahan, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the Cabinet's ordinance on triple talaq, calling it unconstitutional and anti-women. He said that the burden of proof will lie on the woman and do further injustice to her.

"The ordinance is against the Right to Equality guaranteed in the Constitution as it is being made only for Muslims. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and women's organisations should challenge this ordinance in the Supreme Court," ANI quoted him as saying.

"This ordinance is against Muslim women. This ordinance will not provide justice to Muslim women. In Islam, marriage is a civil contract and bringing penal provisions in it is wrong."

The Hyderabad MP said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was really concerned about the welfare of women, he should bring a legislation for the 24 lakh women who have been deserted by their husbands. "These 24 lakh women, including 22 lakh Hindu women, are married, but they are not living with their husbands," Owaisi said.

He alleged that the ordinance was a tactic of the Narendra Modi government to divert people's attention from the skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel, devaluation of rupee, lack of jobs for youth, instability in Jammu and Kashmir and the failure of governance.

BJP hails move, targets Congress

The BJP, on the other hand, hailed the ordinance and, like Jahan, said it was a huge step towards empowering women in India. BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Congress had been politicising the issue for years.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, too, targeted the Congress, saying, "As many as 22 Muslim countries have regulated triple talaq by various measures, but in a secular country like India, gender justice was given a complete go-by because of vote bank politics."