Instant talaq a criminal offence after Rajya Sabha nod

NEW DELHI, July 30: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill to outlaw talaq-e-biddat, the Muslim practice of instant divorce by uttering the word “talaq” thrice, the second key legislation to have been passed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in less than a week despite being in minority in the upper house.

An Opposition-sponsored motion to send the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, informally known as the “triple talaq bill”, to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha was put to vote. It was defeated 99 to 84. A select committee is a parliamentary panel of MPs across parties, where the Opposition can examine a draft law at length and suggest changes.

The passage of the triple talaq bill, which would make the practice a penal offence for the husband, after the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill was cleared four days ago, shows that the Opposition’s ability to stall or defeat bills or have them referred to parliamentary committees has greatly diminished.

Since only 193 MPs voted, it’s clear that a large number of MPs chose to skip the voting, helping clear the bill. The Rajya Sabha has a total current strength of 241. The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had not issued whips to its MPs that would have made it mandatory for them to be present during the vote.

The Lok Sabha passed the triple talaq bill on July 12. The President will now sign it into law.

The Bill, passed in last year’s winter session of Parliament in December, ceased to exist as the Rajya Sabha did not clear it before the Lok Sabha was dissolved. It was brought afresh by the Modi government during the current session.

A key reason for the government’s greater clout has been due to a change in the upper house’s composition, with the BJP adding more Rajya Sabha members in recent months, taking the National Democratic Alliance tally to 112 in a 241-member house. It is still shy of a majority, for which its strength needs to be 121. The total capacity of the house is 245, which means there are four vacancies currently.

The BJP has been also able to get some fence-sitting regional parties, such as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), on its side. The YSR Congress Party and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which voted in favour of the government on the RTI bill, helped the ruling side on the triple talaq bill too by not being present in the House during the vote.

A key NDA constituent, the Janata Dal (United), walked out, helping the government by bringing down the total strength present and voting and therefore the required majority to pass a bill.

According to Opposition leaders, all four of BSP’s MPs, seven from the Samajwadi Party, two from the NCP as well as both MPs of the Telegu Desam Party skipped the voting. The Peoples Democratic Party said its two MPs had abstained from voting.

Several Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party, voiced concerns over the bill during a raucous debate.

Their main arguments were that since Muslim marriage is a civil contract, there is no need to make instant triple talaq a punishable crime.

The bill makes instant talaq a cognizable offence, with provisions for up to three years’ imprisonment, along with a fine. Although it stands to be a bailable offence, the bail may be granted only after hearing the wife. A cognizable offence is one for which a police officer may arrest an accused person without a warrant.

The Opposition said a key inconsistency in the bill is that jailing the offender, in this case the husband, would render him incapable of providing living expenses to the wife or their children during his imprisonment, as is required under the bill itself.

Since the Supreme Court had already invalidated triple talaq, the Opposition said, the question of maintenance did not arise, since the marriage remained intact.

“Why criminalise a civil matter? The government only made cosmetic changes to our suggestions. We had raised two main issues,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

“Why only subsistence allowance? During the period of imprisonment of the offending husband, we wanted the government to take care of the welfare of children. The law minister had told us the government would not pay a single penny,” Azad added.

Quoting the 19th century British political philosopher John Stuart Mill, lawmaker Javed Ali Khan of the SP said that without absolute necessity, nothing ought to be treated as a punishable crime.

The NCP’s Majid Memon said: “What are you going to punish the man for? Since the Supreme Court has invalidated triple talaq, the marriage continues to exist; the wife remain where she was, the marriage continues.”

Pointing out what he called a lacuna, Memon said the bill provided for maintenance, which, under Indian law, could be granted only upon dissolution of a marriage.

To the Opposition’s contention that while banning triple talaq, the Supreme Court did not ask it to be made a punishable offence, law minister Ravi Shakar Prasad said: “I want to clearly assert this House doesn’t need the mandate of the Supreme Court to pass any law.”

“If Arabic and Islamic countries can bring a change, why can’t we?” Prasad asked, referring to several Muslim countries putting limits to the practice of instant talaq.

Tearing into the Congress, Prasad said that while the Congress brought laws to criminalise dowry and brought various laws to empower women, it developed cold feet when it came to issue of Muslim women.

He brought up the issue of the Shah Bano case of the 1980s, when the then Rajiv Gandhi government brought a law to overturn a Supreme Court verdict that ordered maintenance to a Muslim woman. It did so after a backlash from Muslim conservatives, who said the court had interfered with Muslim personal laws, which they said enjoyed constitutional protection.

Triple Talaq law cleared by Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI, July 25: Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a law making the practice of instant “triple talaq’ illegal and punishable with up to three years in jail for the husband. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2019, popularly known as the “triple talaq” bill will now have to clear the Rajya Sabha hurdle before it can become a law.

The “triple talaq” ban is currently being enforced through an ordinance since a bill similar to the present one couldn’t be passed in the Upper House during the tenure of the 16th Lok Sabha.

Narendra Modi Government introduced a fresh bill— making “triple talaq” illegal, void and penal -- in June this year after its re-election in May 2019.

Initiating the debate on the Bill after placing it for consideration, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the law was necessary since the practice hadn’t stopped despite a two-year-old Supreme Court order declaring it illegal.

“574 cases of ‘talaq-e-biddat’ had been reported by the media since January 2017”, Prasad said. “The law was needed to achieve gender equality and justice and shouldn’t be viewed from the narrow prism of religion,” Prasad went on to argue while hitting out at the critics of the Bill.

The new Bill has safeguards such as the provision of bail for the accused before commencement of trial aimed to prevent possible misuse of the law. “A provision has been added to allow the magistrate to grant bail “after hearing the wife”, Prasad said.

Earlier, during the debate, the Opposition demanded removal of the penal provision calling it ‘discriminatory’ to the Muslim husband. Opposition parties also claimed that the 3-year jail term was not just disproportionate but was also counter-productive.

Some other critics suggested that the Bill only targeted Muslim women when the problem of abandoning-wives was not unique to the community.

The Congress party said while it opposed “triple talaq” it couldn’t support the Bill in its current “discriminatory” form as it singled out Muslim men and women. Party’s MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi said the government should have brought a comprehensive bill to empower women from all religions and sections.

Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay demanded that the three-year jail term provision-- which he called “arbitrary and excessive”—be dropped.

“A jailed husband can neither support his family nor give maintenance to his separated wife,” he added while demanding that the Bill be referred to a joint select committee.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the argument against 3-year jail term was specious and mischievous as it sought to side with the guilty. “Those who do not refrain from ‘triple talaq’ deserve to be jailed,” he said. “All the major Islamic countries had banned “triple talaq” and therefore it couldn’t be argued that even a religious ground existed for opposing it,” he added.

NDA ally JD(U) decided to abstain from voting on the “triple talaq” Bill.

Party MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh said, his party was fundamentally opposed to any interference on “triple talaq” and feared the Bill may breed mistrust within the Muslim community. “The government should instead try to awaken the community to women’s rights,” he said, adding that despite being a part of the NDA, his party had divergent views on controversial issues including common civil code and article 370.

Petrol, diesel to be costlier; tax on super-rich, gold imports

NEW DELHI, July 5: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday hiked tax on petrol and diesel, raised import duty on gold, levied additional surcharge on super rich and brought a tax on high value cash withdrawals as she sought to spur growth with reduction in corporate tax and sops to housing sector, startups and electric vehicles.

Presenting the maiden budget of Modi government in Lok Sabha, Ms. Sitharaman, the first full-time woman Finance Minister, proposed measures to ease liquidity crisis facing shadow banking sector (NBFCs) and providing ₹70,000 crore capital to public sector banks while seeking to raise additional resources through privatisation of some PSUs.

In relief to tax payers, she provided for an additional deduction of ₹1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans borrowed up to March 31, 2020 on purchase of a house up to ₹45 lakh.

Corporate tax on companies with turnover of up to ₹400 crore has been slashed to 25 per cent from current 30 per cent. Presently, the lower tax rate is applicable on companies having a turnover of up to ₹250 crore.

Sitharaman said the reduced tax rate would cover 99.3 per cent of corporates in the country.

To boost use of electric vehicles, an additional income tax deduction of ₹1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans taken to purchase EVs has been proposed.

Also the government has asked the GST Council to reduce tax rate on EVs from 12 per cent to 5 per cent. Customs duty on certain parts of EVs has been reduced.

Addressing the angel tax issue faced by startups, she said startups and investors who file requisite declarations will not be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuation of share premium.

A mechanism of e-verification will be put in place and with this, the funds raised by startups will not require any tax scrutiny.

She raised special additional excise duty and road cess on petrol and diesel by ₹1 per litre each, saying lower crude oil prices provide her with an opportunity to review taxes on the sector.

Also, customs duty on gold and precious metals was raised from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent to mobilise resources.

Basic customs duty was raised on an array of products including tiles, cashew kernels, vinyl flooring, auto parts, some synthetic rubber, digital and video recorder and CCTV camera.

Excise duty of ₹ 5 per 1000 has been imposed on cigarettes of length exceeding 65 mm, while 0.5 per cent duty has been levied on chewing tobacco, zarda and tobacco extracts and essence.

“I propose to levy TDS of 2 per cent on cash withdrawal exceeding ₹1 crore in a year from a bank account,” she said.

She also announced a surcharge on individuals having taxable income of ₹2 crore to ₹5 crore and for those above ₹5 crore which will hike their effective tax rate by 3 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

Ms. Sitharaman also proposed to made Aadhaar and PAN interchangeable for the purpose of filing Income Tax returns.

To boost FDI inflow into the country, the government will examine further liberalisation of sectoral investment caps in aviation, media, animation and insurance.

The Budget also proposed 100 per cent FDI in insurance intermediaries and easing of local sourcing norms for single brand retail.

She said measures are being worked out to ease filing returns and tax compliance. Taxpayers with an annual turnover of less than ₹5 crore will have to file only quarterly returns, she said

To boost cash-less economy, she said business establishments with annual turnover of ₹50 crore will have to use BHIM, UPI, Aadhaar Pay, NEFT, RTGS modes of payments with no charges or merchant discount rates will be imposed on customers or merchants.

RBI and banks will absorb these costs, she said.

The Securities Transaction Tax or STT is proposed to be restricted to the difference between settlement and strike price of options, she said.

The Finance Minister also proposed an additional income tax deduction of ₹1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans taken to buy electric vehicles.

Ms. Sitharaman said the government will spend ₹100 lakh crores for infrastructure in next five years.

The disinvestment target for FY20 was raised to ₹1.05 lakh crore from ₹90,000 crore set in the interim budget and government will continue with disinvestment of PSUs in the non-financial space as well.

Regulation of housing finance companies has been moved to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from the NHB.

The government proposed to allocate ₹70,000 crore for PSU Bank recapitalisation.

Sonia Gandhi says govt selling assets

NEW DELHI, July 2: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi Tuesday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of corporatisation of railways’ Modern Coach Factory in her Rae Bareli constituency and accused the government of selling the country’s assets to private players at throwaway prices, a charge that was immediately denied by the Railways.

“Sonia Gandhi is incorrect… Corporatisation is not privatisation,” a Railways official said.

Earlier, the UPA chairperson while criticising the decision said during the Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, “Those who don’t understand the real meaning of corporatisation....It is actually the first step towards privatisation. They are selling the country’s assets to handful of private players at a throwaway price. This will leave thousands unemployed,” she said.

The railways official, however, said the corporatisation involved making a government PSU “Indian Railway Rolling Stock Company” under the Ministry of Railways, and shifting the Production units including Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Rae Bareli to that.

This means they will remain under government control but will be better managed as these production units will become fully functional PSUs. This will help drive technology partnership and modernisation, the official added.

“Railways will consult with unions and ensure no harm comes to employees and will also ensure best utilisation of taxpayers’ funds,” the official said.

Taking a dig at the government, Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha that the unit (in Rae Bareli) was started during the UPA regime to promote “Make in India”, an initiative of the Modi government.

The MCF is the most modern factory of the Indian Railways and manufactures best coaches at cheapest rates, she asserted.

“The government has invested heavily in it (MCF). It is difficult to understand why the government wants to resort to corporatisation,” she said.

She said the future of 2000 workers remains uncertain due to the government’s move. The primary job of the PSU is welfare of the people and not to benefit capitalists, she said.

The Railways official, however, said that since 2014 the unit has been a priority area. In July 2014, MCF was declared a production unit of Indian Railways. Within a month it started production of fully formed coaches. Since then it has doubled production almost every year: 140 coaches in 2014-15, 285 in 2015-16, 576 in 2016-17, 711 in 2017-18. It is expected to produce 1,425 coaches in 2018-19. Target for this year is 2,158 coaches, the official added.

In Rajya Sabha, NDA to be six short of majority mark on July 5

NEW DELHI, July 1: The NDA seems to be inching closer towards the majority mark in the Rajya Sabha. By July 5, four TDP MLAs and one INLD MP will be added to the NDA, which will get the alliance closer towards the majority mark.

As on Sunday, the strength of the NDA stood at 111 in the House of 235. There are 10 vacancies currently in the House and by July 5 the strength of the NDA would increase to 115, which is just 6 below the majority mark.

The full strength of the House is 245 and in this case, the NDA is short by 8 MPs. The NDA would however count on parties such as the YSRCP, TRS and BJD in case it has crucial Bills to be passed.

Ram Vilas Paswan elected unopposed to RS from Bihar

Of the 6 vacancies that are to be filled on July 5, one from Bihar goes to the Lok Janshakti headed by Ram Vilas Paswan. In Odisha there are three vacancies of which one goes to the BJP and the rest to the BJD. Both the vacant seats from Gujarat are set to be bagged by the BJP.

On July 18, elections to the six vacancies from Tamil Nadu will be held. The AIADMK holds four of these seats, while the DMK and CPI hold one each. The AIADMK is expected to lose one seat, while the DMK will get two.

Will win hearts of Valley: Amit Shah gets RS okay for 2 key J&K proposals

NEW DELHI, July 1: Piloting two key proposals on Jammu and Kashmir through the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday declared that the Centre would continue with a hardline approach to deal with separatists and terrorists in the state. But for everyone else in Kashmir, he said the government would adopt former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s policy of ‘Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat’ (democracy, humanity and Kashmiriyat).

“We will win hearts of people in Kashmir… They will embrace us,” the home minister said, but underscored that the government’s commitment to the policy of ‘Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat’ should not be taken to mean that the forces who want to divide India will be spared. “They will be given an appropriate response in their language,” the Home Minister told the Rajya Sabha.

Amit Shah was responding to a marathon debate on a resolution to extend President’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir and a bill to extend quota benefits to people in three Jammu districts who suffer due to shelling along the international border in J&K.

The Lok Sabha had passed the two proposals last week but it was in the Rajya Sabha that it faced its most crucial test. The BJP-led ruling coalition is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha. The two were also Amit Shah’s first effort to get a law enacted after taking charge as home minister in Modi’s second term.

“Let the record show that the proposals have been passed unanimously,” Amit Shah asked.

That the two proposals would not face much of a hurdle became clear early in the evening when leaders of several opposition parties including PDP, Trinamool Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal – despite their sharp criticism of the BJP’s policy– made it clear that they would support the legislative proposals.

The home minister, who had been sitting through the entire debate, responded to the criticism hurled at him by his political rivals, one by one. Shah also countered critics who felt that the ruling coalition had been blaming the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for just about everything.

Shah said it wasn’t his party’s intention to lower Nehru’s prestige. But history is cruel, he said, stressing that a country that doesn’t learn from its mistakes doesn’t end up too well. He also insisted that faulting Nehru’s decisions did not imply that he was questioning his intentions.

“We must learn from history. Congress must answer for the historical blunders done by them: Why did Nehru govt go to the UN despite Kashmir’s accession to India? Why did he agree for a plebiscite that is in any case out of question today?” he asked.

advertisements