Triple talaq Bill LIVE UPDATES: Bill in Rajya Sabha today, BJP issues whip to MPs

Triple talaq bill: Women celebrate the Supreme Court verdict which set aside the centuries-old practice of instant talaq. (Source: file photo/ Prashant Nadka)

After Lok Sabha last week passed the triple talaq Bill to criminalise the practice of ‘instant talaq’, it will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The government, which has been leaving no stone unturned to get the Bill ratified as a law, has issued a three-line whip to its MPs, asking them to be present in Parliament for the next two days.

The bill gives legal right to Muslim women against talaq-e-biddat or instant triple talaq and makes the practice a “cognizable and non-bailable offence”.

The bill might face stiff opposition as the NDA doesn’t enjoy a majority in the Upper House. Meanwhile, Opposition parties wanted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill to be referred to a parliamentary committee. Opposition members have raised their concern over the award of three years of jail term for a Muslim man if he says talaq thrice to his wife. In his first remarks on triple talaq bill after it was passed by Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that after years of suffering women from Muslim community have finally found a way to free themselves.

Triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha LIVE UPDATES:

10:23 am: The way triple talaq bill was passed in Lok Sabha, it will be passed in Rajya Sabha too with constructive debate and discussion, hope opposition including Congress supports it: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

10.00 am: NCP has already made it clear that we are entirely against criminalisation. A marriage in Islam is a civil contract, you can’t impose sentence of 3 years on improper talaq given by husband to wife. Let it go for reconsideration to Select Committee: Majeed Memon, NCP.

9:01 am: The Bill proposes that in light of the judgment, the pronouncement of talaq-e-biddat (instant triple talaq) will be “void and illegal”, meaning it would have no legal effect. So whether a Muslim man utters the word ‘talaq’ three times or a million times, it will have no legal effect and the marriage remains intact, opines  Salman Anees Soz. READ HERE 

8:59 am: Welcome to the Indian Express Live Blog.