by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi sought the Prime Minister’s support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday asked him to support the proposed law to prohibit triple talaq and nikah halala.
He said that as national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights.
In a letter to Gandhi, which was released to the media, Prasad said: “As part of the new deal, we should approve, in both houses of Parliament, the Women’s Reservation Bill, the law prohibiting triple talaq and imposing penal consequence on those who violate the law, and prohibiting nikah halala.”
Under the triple talaq practice, a Muslim man can instantly divorce his wife by orally repeating the ‘talaq’ word thrice. As per ‘nikah halala’, a woman divorcee has to marry someone else, consummate this marriage to get a divorce and remarry her earlier husband.
Prasad’s letter came a day after Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek his support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament’s monsoon session starting on July 18, claiming that the BJP appears to have had second thoughts on the proposed law even though it was a key promise in its 2014 manifesto.
“As national parties, we cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights. We are already too late in conferring the right of adequate representation, equality in personal laws and doing away with such provisions which compromise women’s dignity,” Prasad said.
The BJP leader also targeted the Congress chief over the lapsing of the Women’s Reservation Bill with the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.
“The bill was originally proposed by the National Democratic Alliance government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee but could not be passed for want of a consensus in Parliament.
“It was reintroduced during the UPA-II government in the Rajya Sabha. Despite disturbances, the BJP and NDA stood in firm support of the bill and got it passed in the Rajya Sabha. For reasons best known to the government of that day, no effort was made to get the bill passed in the Lok Sabha,” Prasad said.
The Minister said that the Modi government welcomes Gandhi’s initiative to support the bill. “However, the government will like to understand fully the reasons why the bill was not taken up for three years by the UPA government in the Lok Sabha and allowed to lapse?”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) : Raking up the controversy over the reported remarks of Rahul Gandhi that the Congress is a party for Muslims, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress and other parties of wanting continuance of practices like triple talaq.
He also wondered whether the Congress was interested only in the welfare of Muslim men and not women.
“For the last two days I am hearing that a naamdar leader (a sarcastic reference to Rahul Gandhi) recently said that the Congress is a party of Muslims. I’m not surprised. Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once said that Muslims have the first right over nation’s natural resources.
“But I want to ask the naamdar of Congress, congratulations to them. But please tell us whether the Congress is only for Muslim men? Or does it have space for Muslim women too because they don’t stand with Muslim women on issues of triple talaq and nikah halala,” he said addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the Purvanchal Expressway in a speech aimed at the next Lok Sabha polls in the battle ground state.
Modi said all the parties have been exposed on the issue of triple talaq. It concerns the lives of lakhs and crores of Muslim women. Even in Islamic countries, there is a ban on triple talaq, he said.
The Prime Minister’s attack on Gandhi and the Congress on the issue of Muslims came a day after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused the Congress of dividing the country on communal lines and playing a dangerous game before 2019 general elections.
Citing a report in an Urdu daily which claimed that Gandhi told a meeting of Muslim intellectuals earlier this week that the Congress is a party for Muslims, she had demanded an apology from the Congress President.
The Prime Minister also accused the opposition parties of not allowing Parliament to function. “They don’t allow the Parliament to function. They stall the proceedings. I would like all anti-Modi leaders to go and meet these women who have been affected by triple talaq and nikah halala and then come to Parliament. People have to be alert about such parties.
“These parties want triple talaq to continue. I will try to make them understand and bring them together for the sake of Muslim women so that they get freedom,” he alleged.
He said these are 18th century parties in the 21st century and cannot do any good for the country.
Modi said that Purvanchal Expressway will take Uttar Pradesh to greater heights. “More than Rs 23,000 crore will be spent on the project. All cities, towns between Lucknow and Ghazipur, that fall on this route will witness a change.”
The Prime Minister also said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had changed perception about Uttar Pradesh.
“The Yogi Adityanath government has been able to control crime rate, corruption in Uttar Pradesh. He has contributed immensely in the state’s development,” Modi said.
He also said besides highways, work was also on relating to waterways and airways.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a fresh plea that challenged the constitutional validity of the practice of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims in India.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud issued the notice to the Centre and tagged the plea with similar petitions pending before it.
The fresh plea filed by Women Resistance Committee Chairperson Nazia Ilahi Khan, a practicing advocate at the Calcutta High Court, has challenged the practice of polygamy, ‘nikah halala’, ‘nikah mutah’ (temporary marriage among Shias) and ‘nikah misyar’ (short-term marriage among Sunnis) on the grounds that these were violative of the Constitution’s Articles 14, 15 and 21.
Under ‘nikah halala’, if a Muslim woman after divorce by her husband three times on different instances, wants to go back to him, she has to marry another person and then divorce the second husband to get re-married to her first husband.
“Declare the dissolution of the Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution in so far as it fails to secure for the Indian Muslim women the protection from bigamy which has been statutorily secured for Indian women from other religions,” said her plea filed through advocate V.K. Biju.
The apex court has been hearing pleas filed by Sameena Begum, Nafisa Khan, Moullium Mohsin and BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay on the issue.
Article 14 guarantees equality before law, Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and Article 21 guarantees protection of life and personal liberty.
Telling the court that though different religious communities are governed by different personal laws, Upadhyay had contended that “personal laws must meet the test of constitutional validity and constitutional morality in as much as they cannot be violative of Articles 14, 15, and 21”.
Pointing to the “appalling” affect of polygamy and other such practices on the Muslim women, senior counsel Mohan Parasaran had earlier told the apex court that the 2017 judgment holding instant ‘triple talaq’ as unconstitutional had left these two issues open and did not address them.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by then Chief Justice J.S. Khehar (since retired), by a majority judgment in 2017, had said: “Keeping in view the factual aspect in the present case, as also the complicated questions that arise for consideration in this case (and, in the other connected cases), at the very outset, it was decided to limit the instant consideration to ‘talaq-e-biddat’ or triple talaq.
“Other questions raised in the connected writ petitions, such as polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ (and other allied matters), would be dealt with separately. The determination of the present controversy may, however, coincidentally render an answer even to the connected issues.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Central government’s response on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the practice of polygamy, nikah halala (a requirement for a divorced couple to remarry), nikah mutah (temporary marriage in the Shias) and nikah misyar (short-term marriage among Sunnis) amongst the Muslim community.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the matter would be heard by the constitution bench, and directed that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice for setting up of an appropriate bench.
In addition to the notice missed to the Central government and others, the court ordered that a copy of the petitions be served on a Central agency so that it can apprise the office of Attorney General.
The court also permitted advocate V.K.Biju appearing for Kolkata based Muslim Women Resistance Committee to move an impleadment application in the case. He was permitted to be associated with any of the four petitions before the court.
Seeking response from the Central government and other respondents, the court did not include Law Commission as one of the respondents which was made a party by petitioner Nafisa Khan.
Issuing notice, the court noted the grounds stating that though these practices, which come within the domain of Muslim personal law, were not immune from judicial review under the Constitution.
The court has been moved by Sameena Begum, Nafisa Khan, Moullium Mohsin and BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenging the practice of polygamy, nikah halala, nikah mutah and nikah misyar on the grounds of these being violative of Article 14, Article 15 and Article 21 of the Constitution.
Article 14 guarantees equality before law, Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and Article 21 guarantees protection of life and personal liberty.
Telling the court that different religious communities are governed by different personal laws, Upadhyay has contended that “there could be no dispute, that different religious communities can have different laws, but personal laws must meet the test of constitutional validity and constitutional morality, in as much as, they cannot be violative of Articles 14, 15,21 of the Constitution”.
Pointing to the “appalling” affect of polygamy and nikah halala and other practices on the Muslim women, senior counsel Mohan Parasaran told the court that the 2017 judgement which had held instant triple talaq as unconstitutional had left these two issues open and did not address them.
The five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S.Khehar (since retired) by majority judgment in 2017 had said: “Keeping in view the factual aspect in the present case, as also, the complicated questions that arise for consideration in this case (and, in the other connected cases), at the very outset, it was decided to limit the instant consideration, to ‘talaq-e-biddat’ – triple talaq.”
“Other questions raised in the connected writ petitions, such as, polygamy and nikah halala (-and other allied matters), would be dealt with separately. The determination of the present controversy, may however, coincidentally render an answer even to the connected issues,” it has said.
A Muslim husband is allowed to have more than one wife.
Under nikah halala, if a Muslim woman after being divorced by her husband three times at different instances wants to go back to him, then she has to marry another person and then divorce the second husband to get re-married to her first husband.
—-IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday sought Centre’s response on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the practice of polygamy and nikah halala amongst the Muslim community.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the matter would be heard by the constitution bench.
The court directed that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice for setting up of an appropriate bench.
Appearing for one of the petitioners, senior counsel Mohan Parasaran told the court that the 2017 judgement which had held instant triple talaq as unconstitutional had left these two issues open and did not address them.
A Muslim husband is allowed to have more than one wife.
Under nikah halala, if a Muslim woman after being divorced by her husband three times at different instances wants to go back to him, then she has to marry another person and then divorce the second husband to get re-married to her first husband.
—IANS