HYDERABAD: While Telangana has failed to send its views on Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday, experts are concerned the proposed legislation violates criminal law principles. “This is an overkill,” says Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law.” “The Centre is determined to go ahead with this bill. How can you define something that does not harm someone physically as a crime? It doesn’t go well with the criminal justice system.”
The triple talaq judgement of August 22, 2017, was presided over by a bench of five judges, the verdict was a 3-2 split but it did not criminalise the practice. The bench left it up to the Centre to enact a law only.“Criminal law will not help solve or help bring social change, the law is not a great agent of social control,” said Mustafa. A number of researchers and Supreme Court has also noted that there are very few instances of triple talaq.
The centre had said that since the SC judgement there has been as many 67 cases of divorces through triple talaq, Hyderabad has seen two.“Two months is too short a time to create awareness about a Supreme Court decision. The government instead of penalising men should first try to create legal awareness among Muslim men,” said Mustafa.