Parliament LIVE: Triple Talaq Bill May Be Tabled Tomorrow, Says Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar

CPI leader D. Raja on Tuesday said that the Left wants the Triple Talaq Bill to be referred to the Select Committee and accused the government of "bypassing the committees" on crucial bills. "As far as Left parties are concerned, we want this bill to be referred to the Select Committee. But the BJP-led NDA government is bypassing the committee system," he said.  "They are saying 'don't send bills to the Standing Committee for closer scrutiny'. When it comes to Rajya Sabha, we will demand that it should be sent to the Select Committee," he said.

Thiruvananthapuram: Patients wait outside General Hospital as doctors boycott outpatient consultation from 9 am to 10 am after Indian Medical Association called for suspending private healthcare services for 12 hours in protest against National Medical Commission Bill #Kerala pic.twitter.com/0c74H7zBR5

— ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2018

Triple Talaq bill likely to come up tomorrow in Rajya Sabha

The draft bill was introduced by Union Health Minister JP Nadda in Lok Sabha on Thursday to replace and subsume the Medical Council of India (MCI). The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on December 18, is to set up a new and transparent system of regulating healthcare. 

The first draft of the Bill was brought about by the NITI Aayog and drew from the 92nd Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health. The Committee had come down strongly on the MCI was allegations of “rampant corruption”, for being “unresponsive” to health system needs, and for not being able to take forward any serious reforms in the medical education system. It delved into the MCI’s chequered past, the arrest of its former president Dr Ketan Desai on charges of corruption, and it’s temporary suspension. 

Spoke to Indian Medical Association yesterday, we have heard them and put forth our perspective as well: Union Health Minister JP Nadda in Rajya Sabha on the strike called by Indian Medical Association to protest the proposed National Medical Commission Bill.

The controversial National Medical Commission Bill will be tabled by the government in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The bill seeks to allow practitioners of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga and other alternative medicines to enter the field of modern medicine after completing a “bridge course”.  The bridge course will be decided upon at a meeting between the proposed National Medical Commission, which will replace the Medical Council of India, the Central Council of Homoeopathy and the Central Council of Indian Medicine. 

Indian Medical Association calls for a strike to protest the proposed National Medical Commission Bill... Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal raises the issue of doctors protesting in Rajya Sabha...

(1/2) *Need for turning a civil issue into a criminal act: Marriages and divorces are fundamentally civil issues. There are the judicial and quasi-judicial forum to adjudicate such discards. Any act of violence also has redressed under the Indian Penal Code and hence, why create a new offence to make the issue of divorce a criminal offence? 

* Absence of mechanism for maintenance for wives and minor children: The bill is completely silent on the aspect of how to provide for subsistence allowance to the aggrieved women and their children when the men may find themselves behind the bar after registration of the case. One of the provisions does talk about subsistence allowance but how will a man provide if he is jailed? Further,  the government has not announced that there will be a separate corpus of funds to ascertain maintenance in such cases. 

* Shutting possibility of reconciliation: Although the man and the woman will remain legally wedded in spite of utterance of the three words, it would become improbable they will ever reconcile after a criminal case is lodged against the husband. Somebody who has opted to give triple talaq is unlikely to accept the woman back once he is incarcerated because of a complaint by his 'wife' 

(1/1)The Central government is set to table the Triple Talaq bill in Rajya Sabha today. The bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, had witnessed protests by opposition parties like Congress, Left, AIADMK and DMK, on various grounds. The opposition parties said the bill should be referred to a parliamentary panel for a deliberation and fine-tuning. 

Here are the issues flagged by the opposition:

* When the marriage remains, why send husband to jail: It has been argued that after the Supreme Court verdict, instant triple talaq will not have any effect on a marriage. Therefore, the utterance will have no meaning in law and the marriage shall remain intact. If there is no impact on the marriage and the utterance is a nullity in itself, which act is proposed to be criminalised under the bill?

Standing in Parliament as a champion of gender justice and a crusader for 'Muslim sisters', Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sought for bipartisan support for the Bill, without actually consulting the actual stakeholders, including the very 'Muslim sisters' that he and his government are fighting for.

"Detterent is necessary, says PP Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for the Law and Justice and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on triple talaq bill

"We are in talks with the Opposition for the triple talaq bill. We hope for a smooth passage in Rajya Sabha. Kal pesh ho sakta hai," says Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar

"It has been listed for today but as far as the left parties are concerned, we will demand that bill should referred to Select Committee of Rajya Sabha," says CPI leader D Raja.

With the government introducing the Muslim Women (Protection of Marriage) Bill, 2017, questions have been raised in the Lok Sabha on the constitutional validity of the proposed legislation.

DMK wants criminalisation clause to be removed. Reservations are largely on clause 7 and clause 4 of the bill.
 
* Clause 7 makes triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence. 
 
* Clause 4 says any pronouncement of triple talaq will lead to punishment which may extend up to three years.

"Earlier Congress made efforts to make the Supreme Court's judgement on triple talaq ineffective. Congress is confused on what they want to do on Triple Talaq. The will be passed in Rajya Sabha and I am sure that the opposition will support it...These parties are synonyms of hypocrisy" says BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The National Medical Commission Bill 2017, which seeks to replace Medical Council of India with a new body, to ensure transparency, will likely to be passed by Lok Sabha today. 

"We have already made it clear that we are entirely against criminalisation. A marriage in Islam is a civil contract, you can't impose a sentence of three years on improper talaq given by a husband to wife. Let it go for reconsideration to Select Committee," says NCP leader Majeed Memon.

Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu will chair a meeting in half-an-hour to discuss the triple talaq bill. MPs from both Congress and  Bharatiya Janata Party will attend the meeting.

Making every pronouncement of talaq upon his wife a criminal offence will irretrievably destroy the marriage.

The Bharatiya Janata Party issues a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs asking them to remain present in the Parliament on 2nd and 3rd Jan for passage of several crucial bills.

The opposition will hold a strategy meet at 10.30am to discuss on triple talaq. Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad will lead the talks. Sources said the government is willing to make changes to the triple talaq bill to accommodate opposition demands in the bill.

Under the law, instant triple talaq in any form --spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp -- would be illegal and void. Meanwhile, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has claimed that various Muslim bodies in the country would move the Supreme Court if the bill is also passed by the Rajya Sabha.

The contentious bill that criminalises instant triple talaq among Muslims, already passed by the Lok Sabha, is set to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha today. The bill, which makes instant triple talaq illegal with up to three years in jail for the husband, was passed by the Lower House last week. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill is listed for introduction by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, according to the list of business of the Upper House. This bill gives power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking "subsistence allowance" for herself and minor children in the case of instant triple talaq or talaq-e- biddat.