NDA tables triple talaq bill, Opposition disrupts Rajya Sabha

Disruptions followed as soon as the triple talaq Bill was tabled in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The Speaker adjourned the Upper House till 11 am Thursday within a few hours as the Opposition pressed to the government to send the bill to the Select Committee. 

As Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tabled the bill in Rajya Sabha, Congress immediately moved a resolution to send the bill to the standing committee.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said it was an "invalid resolution".

Jaitley asserted that the motion should have been submitted a day earlier, adding that a motion has to be given at least 24 hours in advance. 

Jaitley said that the motion should not be referred to Select Committee. Citing urgency, he said that the legislature must act with a sense of responsibility. 

The bill was earlier presented by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 

While addressing the Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad cited a case of the latest victim of triple talaq in Moradabad.

He said,"Even after passage of Triple Talaq in Lok Sabha the practice is continuing, a woman in Moradabad was given triple talaq over dowry."

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017, seeks to criminalise triple talaq.

The Congress, Left, and the AIADMK and DMK have supported the bill but have called for the modifications of certain provisions, claiming the bill could upset the sentiments of Muslim women. 

The Left parties, which have had consultations with the Congress in the past week, have asked that the bill "be referred to a select committee".