ET View: Passage of Triple Talaq Bill a moment of great import for India’s legislative history

The passage of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 criminalising triple talaq is a moment of great import for gender equality and justice and for India’s legislative history. With this bill, Parliament righted a wrong it had inflicted on its people more than two decades earlier.

After President Kovind signs the bill, it will become the law and will replace the 1986 Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, commonly referred to as the Shah Bano Unlike the current legislation, the 1986 Act overturned the Supreme Court’s 1985 landmark ruling on the Shah Bano case that said that the religion of the spouse has no bearing on whether providing alimony and maintenance for the spouse and children after the divorce. Shah Bano’s husband to pay alimony and maintenance for her and their five children. The 1986 Act left Muslim women without the protection that other women had under the law. With Tuesday’s passage of the “triple talaq” bill as the legislation is referred to in short hand, this great wrong done to Muslim women has been undone.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 does more than criminalise triple talaq, it offers Muslim women recourse and access to protection of the law from the practice of arbitrary instant divorce. The passage of this legislation has not been easy. It was literally third time lucky for the bill. It has been two years since Supreme Court ruled that the practice of instant triple talaq or talaq e-biddat unconstitutional. Though initially the government did not consider bringing in a legislation, it was soon clear that without a concrete law in place the hard won cause of gender justice for Muslim women would not be actualised. It would also leave Muslim women vulnerable to a reprisal of the events following the Shah Bano ruling. This was the third attempt by the government to ensure the passage of the bill—in both earlier instances the bill had been passed by the Lok Sabha but failed to make it through the Rajya Sabha.

The legislation brings India at par with other Muslim majority states including Pakistan and Bangladesh. This was long overdue for a country that has taken pride in its adherence to the principles of secularism, democracy, and equality. Personal laws of other religious communities, Hindus and Christians, have gone through renditions to address some concerns relating to gender equality in matters of inheritance and polygamy. Despite the gains, gender equality does not permeate all aspects of civil law. This legislation presents an opportunity to put in place a civil code that steeped in equality—across faiths and gender.

Having ensured a modicum of gender justice, the government should use this moment to build on the gains to address the gender inequities that persist in civil and personal laws across the board. Building on the momentum for change, a demand that has come from within the community, the government should ask the Law Commission to review all personal/civil laws to ensure that these do not violate the Fundamental Rights guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution. In doing so, paving the way for a honest national dialogue that would take the nation towards a uniform civil code that is steeped in equality and democratic values.