BJP promises to modernise personal laws to prohibit practices Talaq-e-Biddat and Nikah Halala in poll manifesto

The Bharatiya Janata Party released its Lok Sabha election manifesto on Monday in which it has proposed to prohibit practices such Talaq-e-Biddat and Nikah Halala to ensure gender quality and women's empowerment.

The nikah halala is a practice which requires a divorced Muslim woman to remarry, consummate the marriage and get a divorce and only then she is allowed to go back to the man in her previous marriage.

In its Lok Sabha election manifesto, the party promised to modernise personal laws to prohibit practices such as Talaq-e-Biddat and Nikah Halala for the inclusion of minorities, the empowerment of women and the encouragement of youth and said that it would not allow politics of appeasement to come in the way of attaining these goals.

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The manifesto reads:

"Every society progresses through the empowerment of women, inclusion of minorities and the encouragement of youth. We will not allow these objectives to be held back by the politics of appeasement. Therefore, we hope to modernize personal laws to prohibit practices such as Talaq-e-Biddat and Nikah Halala. 

We have determinedly taken substantive measures to ensure overall development of women and promote gender equality. Continuing our work, we will legislate a bill to prohibit and eliminate practices such as Triple Talaq and Nikah Halala."

The BJP during its current term had brought the Triple Talaq ordinance and later brought the bill and got it passed in the Lok Sabha. But could not get it passed in the Rajya Sabha. Following this, in February 19 the cabinet gave its nod to re-issuing of the contentious triple talaq ordinance.

The bill on Triple Talaq is set to lapse with the dissolution of the present Lok Sabha on June 3. The ordinance has been reissued for the third time in less then a year.

Opposition parties and some community leaders have claimed that jail term for a man for divorcing his wife is legally untenable. The government has asserted that it provides justice and equality to Muslim women.

READ | Triple Talaq Ordinance Re Promulgated