The central government once again presented The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018 in the Lok Sabha on 27 December 2018. It got passed without any hurdles there, but it failed to repeat the same in Rajya Sabha. Last year also, after passing The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 by the BJP government it faced the same fate in the Rajya Sabha. According to reports, the BJP government with its full force will once again try to pass this bill in Rajya Sabha in the coming months.

The concerns and apprehensions put forward by the Muslim Organizations and opposition parties against the bill of 2017 have not been responded in the bill of 2018. However, the magistrate has been given the powers to interrogate the accused before putting him behind bars upon the request of the women, and he may grant the bail to the accused if needed on reasonable grounds. But the main apprehensions of the previous bill have been retained intact. We have discussed the legal and technical flaws of this in detail in the Jan-Feb 2018 issue of Tameer-e-Fikr.

The most important point in this regard is that marriage is considered a social contract in Islam, in which the spouses are free to agree on any term between them while finalizing this social agreement. This is an important feature and flexibility enshrined in the Islamic Shariah, and if properly utilized it can be used to prevent misuse of triple talaq. For example, if a model nikahnama is prepared in which the condition is clarified whether triple talaq divorce is acceptable or not; or in case of triple talaq, the husband should be charged with a fine sentence or sentence or both; or invalidating the triple talaq altogether, the abuse of triple talaq may be overcome or its losses can be reduced significantly. It will be acceptable by both the Shariah and the law.

Contrary to this, a civil matter has been criminalized in this bill, which is against Islamic concept of marriage nikah as well as the common sense. The second major contradiction of this bill is that if the instant divorce is null and void according to this bill, then why punish the accused with three years in jail and fine? Thirdly, this bill doesn’t mention who will provide the maintenance to the wife and their children in case of imprisonment of the accused. Therefore, this bill all together is a “black law” aimed at escalating, rather than solving the problems faced by Muslim society.