Executive order on Triple Talaq a compelling necessity: Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi, Sep 19: Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that there was a compelling necessity and an overpowering urgency to approve the Ordinance.

"I have said this before, the issue of triple talaq has nothing to do with faith, mode of worship or religion. It is a pure issue of gender justice, gender dignity and gender equality," he said.

Targeting the Congress for the delay in passing the Bill, Shankar said he approached the party five-six times, but it did not respond.

"Such a barbaric inhuman, triple talaq curse was not allowed to be ended by a Parliamentary law because of ambiguity and vacillation of the Congress party for pure vote bank politics."

On the last day of the monsoon session, Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu had deferred the Bill till the Winter Session, citing the lack of "consensus" in the House. The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha last December.

The triple talaq bill aims to 'set aside' the centuries-old practice of instant divorce or talaq-e-biddat by men. It provides for three years imprisonment and a fine for divorcing a woman by uttering "talaq" three times in quick succession. In August, the Cabinet approved inclusion of a provision to allow the magistrate to grant bail to men accused of giving instant triple talaq to their wives.

The amendments came after the Supreme Court on August 22 last year struck down the practice of triple talaq, calling it unconstitutional.