The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to pleas challenging the constitutional validity of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims.
'Our case should act as a warning. It is high time change comes to society. This is not the way to treat a woman. I don't want any other woman to have a fate like mine.'
The law minister said 20 Muslim countries in the world, including Pakistan and Malaysia, have banned the triple talaq. "Why can't a secular India do it?" he asked.
'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
"It is a historic day. We are making history today," Law Minister said.
'As long as true Hinduism survives in India, we need not let the Hindutva fear factor keep us from accepting a change in Muslim personal law with a ban on triple talaq,' says Najid Hussain.
When the bench asked Sibal 'shouldn't we hear the matter', he replied, 'Yes. You shouldn't.'
The panel suggested changes in laws relating to marriage, divorce, alimony, and marriageable age for men and women.
Rajya Sabha also rejected an opposition sponsored motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House and for making triple talaq a civil offence with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.
The draft 'Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill' was considered by the Union cabinet which gave its nod, the functionary said.
Under the draft law, triple talaq in any form -- spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp -- would be bad or illegal and void.
A Muslim woman, who was divorced by her husband through a phone call from Dubai, has challenged the Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat) and nikah halala, leading the Supreme Court to seek response from the Centre on her plea on Friday.
The bench had made it clear that it would examine whether the practice of triple talaq among Muslims is fundamental to their religion.
''Laws are made for every citizen to get justice.' 'If there is abuse of law, then the law will have its own course correction mechanism also.'
AG Mukul Rohatgi led the Indian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council.
If there is a lesson to be learnt from the 1980s, it is that mobocracy never works. And a government that yields before public protests will have ceded its right to govern, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Some of her best films are not available on streaming platforms, but Deepa Gahlot looks at her Hindi cinema oeuvre on OTT.
Jamida K is the first Indian Muslim woman to lead the Friday prayer.
Amid outrage over the menace of forcing minor Muslim girls into wedlock, police have arrested three persons, including the mother of a United Arab Emirates national, who forcibly married a minor girl in Kozhikode, Kerala.
Is Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi opening another minefield with the introduction of mandatory pre-nuptial agreement before marriage or will this proposed legislation help streamline the dissolution process of a marriage given the spiralling divorce rates in our country? Rashme Sehgal speaks to lawyers on the issue.
It is mischievous to imply that the proposed bill to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists from other nations implies that Muslims and Christians are not Indians, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Ansari believes a national debate on a Uniform Civil Code is a must. 'The need of the hour is to debate this issue at length in order to create a consensus,' Ansari tells Rediff.com, adding, 'Such a debate must take place at the grassroot level. We must understand all the divergent viewpoints before any draft can be prepared.'
'More so, if it is their daughters wanting to marry someone of their own choosing.' 'Children are seen as property. That's why the problem is so messy.' For young Indians wanting to marry outside their religion, expressing their right to love and live as they choose is becoming increasingly hazardous.
'If Rakesh Sinha introduces the bill, but it does not pass the Rajya Sabha in six years, then the bill will lapse.'
