Triple Talaq becomes criminal offence: Ordinance passed by Modi government

September 19: In a bid to provide legal succor to Muslim women, Union Government on Wednesday approved promulgation of an ordinance on making Triple Talaq a criminal offence punishable with a three year-jail term. Ordinance or executive order was passed to enforce the proposed law as it could not be passed in parliament in August. The draft law entitled ‘The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017’ was deferred as parties failed to agree on it in the Rajya Sabha, where the government is in a minority.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “The growing instances of triple talaq had forced the government to bring an ordinance with penal provisions. It must remembered triple talaq cases were reported from all over the country even after the Supreme Court had struck it down in August 2017,” he said.

In the reworked version, a complaint can be filed only by the woman or her family. A woman can drop charges if her husband is open to a compromise. The crime remains non-bailable, as a deterrent, the government says. But while the police can’t grant bail, a judge can do so after hearing the woman. As for other provisions are concerned, the mother/victim wife must get the custody of the minor child and the mother is entitled to a maintenance suitably determined by the magistrate for herself and the child.

The decision, ahead of a series of elections, follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day declaration that he would “leave no stone unturned to ensure that Muslim women do not suffer due to triple talaq.”