Triple talaq bill stalled in Rajya Sabha
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The proposed law to criminalise the practice of instant divorce by Muslim husbands will not see the light of the day for at least four more months as the Rajya Sabha on Friday decided to defer the consideration of the bill till the next session due to lack of consensus.
Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, has been deferred till the next session even as Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded that the bill be taken up. The Chairman said he would not proceed without a consensus.
The minister blamed the Congress for the delay.
"Sir, whatever is happening is unfair. Should the Muslim women not get justice? The Congress is delaying it in the name of select committee," Prasad said as Opposition MPs protested loudly and Naidu asked the Minister to stop.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared amendments to the bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha, with the fresh version allowing a magistrate to give bail to the men found instantly divorcing their wives.
According to the new provisions of the bill, instant divorce will continue to be illegal and void, attracting a jail term of three years for the guilty. But if the wife and the husband desire to settle their differences, then a magistrate can compound the offence on appropriate terms and conditions and grant bail after hearing the wife.
The amended bill was listed for consideration and passing in the day's list of business of the Upper House. However, the Opposition members objected to its listing on a Friday, which is reserved for the private members' bills.
In the afternoon, as the House reconvened at 2.30 p.m., Chairman Naidu said: "We are taking up private members' bills now and after that we will take up two government bills. And the bills are on which there is consensus. We are not taking up the other bill (triple talaq bill)."
A few minutes later he reiterated: "I would like to say clearly again that we are not taking up triple talaq Bill for the reason that consensus has not been reached on that."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
