LUCKNOW: Taking its reservations over Triple Talaq to the next level, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has rejected Modi government’s proposed bill over the issue vehemently at an emergency meeting convened here on Sunday.
Terming the proposed law anti-Muslim women and unconstitutional, the board said that any law on the practice should have been framed only after consulting senior Muslim leaders and clerics of the country.
“The proposed bill approved by Central cabinet and ready to be tabled in Parliament is unIslamic, anti-women and against the tenets of the Constitution of India,” said Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, secretary of AIMPLB, while emerging from the executive committee meeting of the Board. Rehmani had come all the way from Hyderabad to take part in the emergency meeting of the board.
Rehmani underlined the point that the proposed bill was against the interest of Muslim women, especially, the triple talaq victims as it provided for a three-year jail term to the perpetrator husband whereas the courts talked of maintenance for the victim by the husband in case of talaq.
“If the husband would be sent to jail, the clause of maintenance would be ignored leaving the victims to fend for themselves,” he added.
The Board, however, agreed to reach out to PM Modi to convey him AIMPLB’s concerns over the proposed bill. “We will request the central government to review the bill and withhold it till it is modified in consultation with a cross-section of Muslim community,” said AIMPLB spokesman Maulana Khalilur Rahman Sajjad Nomani.
Meanwhile, supporting Rehmani’s observations, Zafaryab Jilani, another secretary of the Board, said the provisions of the proposed bill were absurd and could never be acceptable to the Muslim community.
“The purpose of the bill is inconceivable as the Shariat (the book on Islamic laws), as it is, deems triple talaq illegal,” Jilani commented.
While discussing the draft of the proposed bill threadbare, the members felt that it was against the spirit of Article 25 of the Constitution of India which guaranteed freedom of religious faith to the citizens of the country.
The members called it contrary to the Supreme Court’s order seeking a law on ‘instant triple talaq’ while the proposed bill was criminalising the practice and it would leave the women and the children of the Muslim community suffering at large.
“The proposed bill if passed in the Parliament will be against the essence of the Supreme Court’s verdict over the issue as there are a number of laws already prevailing under CrPC to tackle the guardianship issues (custody) of children and also domestic violence to safeguard the interests of the victim women,” said the AIMPLB spokesman.
Nomani added that an issue, which focused on triple talaq, would result in stripping the Muslim men of their right to divorce at all if the proposed bill was passed in the Parliament in its present form.
“The definition of talaq in the bill relates to all forms of talaq over and above the instant triple talaq, which is unacceptable,” remarked Nomani.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Musalmeen (AIMIM) chief and member of Parliament Assaduddin Owaisi had also flown down to Lucknow to attend the AIMPLB’s meeting.