Triple talaq bill has many 'flaws', says AIMPLB

Hyderabad: A top body of Muslim clerics today said there are many “flaws” in the triple talaq bill proposed by the NDA government and vowed to work towards removing them. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) claimed efforts are being made to enact a “very wrong law”.

“There is no such law in the whole world… an effort is being made to make a very wrong law. There are other such flaws. The Muslim Personal Law Board’s stand is to get those flaws removed,” AIMPLB spokesperson Moulana Khaleel-ur-Rehman Sajjad Nomani said.

He was talking to reporters on the eve of the 26th Annual General Meeting of the board to be held here for three days. The AIMPLB spokesperson, however, said the board is not opposed to the bill but want the flaws removed.

The board requested all opposition parties to consider whether the bill can be passed in its present form. The triple talaq bill has already been passed in the Lok Sabha and but it is yet to get a nod in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA lacks a majority.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, criminalises instant talaq and provides for up to three years of imprisonment for accused Muslim men. Nomani alleged the bill in its present form would ban the institution of talaq itself.

“It is generally publicised that this bill is presented to stop triple talaq. But, the fact is, if you read the bill, this bill is to ban the entire institution of talaq,” Nomani said. The bill also enables any person from anywhere to complain against a Muslim man vis-a-vis divorce, he alleged.

The meeting of the board would firm up future course of action on the triple talaq issue and also the Ayodhya matter, he said. Replying to a query, Nomani said the board has not received any official or unofficial proposal to resolve the decades-old Ayodhya issue.