NEW DELHI: Women's rights activists, students and Muslim women from Maharashtra and Delhi met Congress, NCP,
CPM and TMC MPs in New Delhi last week to petition them over the 'criminalisation' provision in the draft law on instant triple talaq.
The women's collective, including groups like 'Bebaak' and the All India Democratic Women's Association, which has opposed the Centre's legislation through
Supreme Court lawyer
Indira Jaising, told the MPs that while they agreed that talaq-e-biddat (triple talaq in a single sitting) should be deemed illegal, they opposed the government's decision to criminalise the act.
The draft law classifies instant triple talaq as a cognisable and non-bailable offence and proposes three-year imprisonment and a fine.
CPM's
Lok Sabha MP
Mohammed Salim told TOI, "Women activists apprised us of their concerns on the proposed legislation. They asked why the government did not hear them before making the draft law."
Salim said the MPs heard the women activists in order to formulate their position. The CPM's position on triple talaq, the MP said, remained what it was, "even before
Modi knew what the word meant".
CPM has traditionally supported Muslim women against the practice of arbitrary and instant triple talaq and welcomed the SC order deeming talaq-e-biddat illegal.
However, it has said claims of government spokespersons that personal laws for Hindu women have been reformed showed that the Centre's real interest to legislate on the issue was not to secure women's equality but to target minority communities, particularly Muslims.
Congress too has expressed reservations over the penal provisions. Party spokesman
Abhishek Singhvi said, "We believe in following the SC order in letter and spirit, it appears the government is using a fragile majority of the SC — which has not even remotely directed criminalisation of triple talaq — as an excuse to criminalise something which was till recently permissible under customary law. The objective appears to be more political than legal, and the consequences are likely to be pure harassment. At the minimum, a transition phase should be allowed before prosecutions start."
