Opposition, TDP want select panel to look at triple talaq Bill

Although the bill was listed, Rajya Sabha did not take it up since Opposition members said the business advisory committee had not allocated it time.

The fate of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which criminalises instant triple talaq, hung in the balance Tuesday with a cross-section of Opposition parties, fence-sitters and NDA constituent TDP demanding it be referred to a select committee of Rajya Sabha for scrutiny and wider consultation. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha last week.

Although the bill was listed, Rajya Sabha did not take it up since Opposition members said the business advisory committee had not allocated it time. Sources said it would be taken up Wednesday.

At the meeting of the business advisory committee, almost all Opposition parties — Congress, SP, BSP, CPI, CPM, Trinamool Congress, DMK, NCP and BJD — favoured the select committee option. The Trinamool Congress had not taken part in the discussion on the bill in Lok Sabha while the AIADMK had opposed it. Sources in the Opposition said the stance of the TDP was surprising.

The MPs, sources said, pointed out that the bill is too short and it is not just the government that wants to protect Muslim women. They said it should be subjected to adequate legislative scrutiny.

“This government wants to destroy the parliamentary practice of legislative scrutiny through either standing committees or select committees,” said Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamool Congress).

“We support the bill. Our only argument has been that it needs to be further reinforced to ensure that women gets their maintenance. In the present form, it needs legal scrubbing. That can only be done by Parliament,” the Congress’s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, told The Indian Express.

Most of the parties, particularly the Congress, do not want to be seen as opposing the bill but argue it needs tweaking. The Congress’s main reservation is about the criminal clause.

MPs noted that the government has conceded in Lok Sabha that the bill was conceived without consultations with Muslim groups and argued it was imperative that this gap be now filled because parliamentary committees, as a matter of procedure, take the views of a cross-section of people.