Certain that it shall not be seen siding with Muslim leader Asaduddin Owaisi on the issue of minority rights, and fearful of a consolidation of majority votes, the Congress has backed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill.

But the principal opposition party will propose amendments to the Bill, especially to the clauses criminalising divorce.

The Bill was passed by a voice vote in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and will be brought to the Rajya Sabha next week. Haunted by the spectre of the Shah Bano case of the 1980s, when the Rajiv Gandhi government overturned a Supreme Court judgement under pressure from Muslim groups, triggering a backlash from the majority community and a flight of votes to the BJP, the Congress has actively backed the present Bill.

Under the proposed law, instant triple talaq in any form would be bad or illegal and void. The proposed law lays down that instant talaq would attract a jail term of three years and a fine. It would be a non-bailable offence.

While the Bill was opposed in the Lok Sabha by other parties in the Opposition, especially by Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Musselmeen (AIMIM), the RJD, the BJD and the Indian Union Muslim League, the Congress fielded woman MP Sushmita Dev to rise in support of the Bill. But the party’s objections were voiced even, though Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala underlined that it is supportive of steps to facilitate justice delivery to a married Muslim woman.

“The Congress was the first to welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the practice of instant triple talaq and say that this is a right step towards protection of women’s rights. The party will support the Bill to ban the practice. We are, in fact, of the view that there is a need to strengthen the Bill and will offer suggestions to this effect,” said Surjewala.

In the House, while Congress Legislature party chief Mallikarjun Kharge appealed for the Bill to be referred to a Standing Committee, Dev said: “...we must all join together in applauding the women who gathered the courage to go against a very regressive practice of instant triple talaq.”

But she highlighted the main concerns of the party which, besides clarifications on whether subsistence allowance is over and above the maintenance that is already given to the woman, relate specifically to the clause regarding imprisonment of the husband for three years.

“This Bill is effectively bringing a matter like divorce, which is generally in the domain of civil jurisdiction, into the domain of criminal jurisdiction. That means, now, it is going to be a criminal offence and the logic to that is that it will act as a deterrent and that more than 22 countries have banned it. The Supreme Court has said it. The Minister on the floor of the House has said that it has also been regulated in many countries like Bangladesh, etc. Today, if you put it in criminal jurisdiction; if you make it a cognisable offence and a non-bailable offence,” said Dev.

“If you look at the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, what is the difference? There is also a one-year imprisonment in that. There is also a provision for fine in that. But the difference between that and your present Bill is that where...the husband is in violation of that order, he will be liable for imprisonment. Therefore, first, he is put in a position to give the woman subsistence or maintenance — a word that is used in 1986 Act — and if he fails, then he goes to jail. May I say so, before one-year of imprisonment is over, if he starts paying maintenance within three months or six months, then the 1986 Act is clear that his tenure of prison will end. But, what have we done here? We have said that the mere utterance of the word ‘talaq, talaq, talaq’ instantly at one instance today is a criminal offence,” she added.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Congress is expected to take a more nuanced position, even though it has strategically desisted from standing on the same side as Muslim conservatives.

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