Triple Talaq bill : A bill to save women and marriages or a confused bill ?

        There has already been lot of controversy on the triple talaq bill with religious sentiment to politics to right and dignity of women to constitutional validity of Triple talaq, giving least botheration to actual man or woman who is actually going to be affected by it.

 How important it is to abolish Triple Talaq :

      Talaq-e-biddat means husband can say Talaq Talaq Talaq to his wife at one go and within seconds they are divorced, it is also known as instant Talaq. Wife doesn’t have any right and suddenly all her rights as wife are truncated. It is not only unconstitutional but immoral and unethical to have such a practice. That is why Honorable Supreme Court itself also has abolished this practice by declaring it unconstitutional. In light of this it becomes important that government enact a law that should enable abolishment of this practice.

But sometimes a small mistake can do blunders and in this case also, a law which has been drafted with good intention with just one flaw has made whole law useless and totally ineffective.

     The intent of Triple Talaq bill is that in case of instant talaq, marriage should not be allowed to be dissolved immediately and that should give some time to husband and wife to reconcile so that their marriage can be saved and in case it is not resolved it will give wife some time to settle down of her own. Law is enacted with the intent, that in case husband gives instant Talaq, wife can complain to authorities and as law disallows instant Talaq, authorities can force the couple to stay as husband and wife.

     In between the whole noise of religious sentiments and politics nobody has bothered to notice that this bill has made instant talaq a criminal act.

How criminalizing it has made it ineffective:

      What this means is as soon as wife complains to authorities, husband will be arrested. That’s right he will be Arrested ! and he will be left at the mercy of authorities and his wife to be released from the jail.

 It is a civil dispute but treated as a criminal act.

What happens in different scenarios :

  1)      Husband gives instant Talaq to his wife but wife doesn’t want divorce. Now in this case if wife reaches authorities for resolution her husband will be arrested immediately and will be left at the mercy of police and court to be released from jail. Any well intentioned wife who wants the relationship to continue will never wish her husband to be jailed, moreover if that happens it is very unlikely that husband will ever be able to continue the relationship. That means even if there is a slim chance that marriage can be saved this law will make sure that marriage certainly breaks.

  2)      Husband gives instant Talaq and wife also wants divorce:  In this case even when wife herself wants divorce instant Talaq is a matter of convenience for both and anyway there is no need to involve authorities, both can amicably settle out.

       In both scenarios it’s easy to see that criminalizing instant talaq is not of any help infact it is now a deterrent for wife to use this law. It is clear that in first scenario this law will be useless as it can’t be used by wife, although that is supposed to be the sole and basic purpose of this law.

Let’s see what will happen in reality and how exactly this law will be used.

  1)      Husband and wife both want to divorce each other : In this case if wife wants to extort money also from her husband, she can complain to authorities about instant Talaq. Husband will be arrested and will be left at the mercy of his wife to get released from Jail. In this case his only option will be to agree to whatever extortion is demanded from his wife.

  2)      Husband doesn’t want divorce but wife wants divorce: This is very peculiar case but that is where real use of this law will come. If wife wants divorce and husband is not ready to give divorce, wife just has to go and complain to the police that her husband has given her instant Talaq and see the magic. No proof will be asked, no inquiry will be conducted and Husband will be arrested immediately and will be left at the mercy of his wife to get the bail. Now wife can chose not to appear for the bail and husband will be kept inside the bars until he breaks down. This is where legally extortion money will be demanded, as in India it is legal to negotiate for extortion for release from a false case. And along with that wife will also demand and get the divorce.

      

      Instead of safeguarding the marriage, effectively this law will only be used when not the husband but wife wants to give Talaq. And along with that she will also be able to extort money and that too legally. It is not only a matter of concern for Man, as a woman also their Son or brother can be arrested anytime just at the whims and fancies of his wife.

        

       With past experience it can be seen that police is least bothered about social welfare and what only matters to them is how they can financially benefit from a law that makes dispute between husband and wife a criminal act. That can be seen from previous dowry and domestic violence acts.

      It is not the first time; law makers have committed the same mistakes earlier also while enacting dowry laws. The law was created so that dowry can be removed and marriages can be saved, on the contrary IPC 498A was enacted that criminalized the dowry.

What that means is:

  1)      If dowry is demanded from wife and wife wants to save her marriage she can’t go to police. As dowry being criminal offence she would not like her husband and in-laws to be arrested. That will stop her to go to authorities to get any help.

  2)      If dowry is demanded and wife doesn’t want to save the marriage, then only she will go to the police, as she would not mind if her husband and in-laws gets arrested.

  3)      If dowry is not demanded but wife wants divorce, this is again the same peculiar case and is most often the case behind dowry complaints. If wife wants divorce as well as extort money from husband she just have to file a false dowry complaint and rest police and law takes care to get the wife divorce and extortion money.

      That is why statistics show that  only 2% of dowry cases turns into conviction as those 2% cases belong to second scenario and rest 98% to third scenario where wife want to misuse the law for the purpose of extortion and divorce. Whereas laws are actually needed for first scenario, those women are left helpless without any law to help them.