New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the bill to ban instant triple talaq and jail Muslim men who indulge in instant divorce, even as the opposition called it a discriminatory legislation and BJP ally JDU staged a walkout.The bill, and later its amended version, were passed by the Sixteenth Lok Sabha too but the legislation lapsed and an ordinance had to be promulgated as the Rajya Sabha never cleared the bill.The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill received 303 votes in favour and 82 against. Replying to an over 6-hour discussion, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Twenty Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia, have banned instant triple talaq. In some places, the practice is bailable and in others non-bailable.Why cannot secular India do the same... Don’t look at the issue through a political lens. This is an issue of justice and humanity... an issue of women’s rights and empowerment... we can’t abandon our Muslim sisters.”Prasad brushed aside questions raised by members on the need for a law when the Supreme Court had already banned the practice.JDU MP Rajeev Ranjan Singh (Lalan) said the bill would create lack of trust in society. “Look at Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. You have an awareness campaign against littering. But you have not introduced a legislation that will jail anyone who is littering.Similarly, when the All India Muslim Personal Law Board has in an affidavit told the Supreme Court that it would create awareness against the practice, why don’t you let it be?”Prasad slammed Congress for ‘losing the opportunity’ in 1986 after the Shah Bano verdict and for following ‘appeasement of Muslims’.“Many members have been asking why bring a legislation when the Supreme Court has termed it illegal.Parliament does not require the sanction of the Supreme Court to bring a law. Since January 2017, there have been 547 cases of instant triple talaq and 345 cases since the Supreme Court judgment. Even after the ordinance, there have been 101 cases of instant triple talaq,” Prasad said.Congress and some opposition parties had made their intention to oppose the bill at the outset. NK Premachandran (RSP), Adhir Chowdhury, Shashi Tharoor (both Congress), Saugata Roy (Trinamool), PK Kunhalikutty (IUML) and Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) had given statutory resolutions that sought disapproval of the bill. A meeting of Congress MPs in the morning too had decided to seek ‘division’ in the House during passage to register opposition to the bill.Moving the statutory resolution — and amendments to the bill — at the beginning of the debate, Premachandran made four broad points: He said the SC had declared the practice void and so there was no need for the government to legislate.Contending that the bill was part of the “BJP agenda to target minorities”, the RSP MP questioned why the provision for three years’ imprisonment for men who illegally divorce wives through triple talaq was incorporated when there were no such criminality clause in Hindu or Christian divorce laws. He also dismissed the government argument that the bill was necessitated by the SC verdict.If so, why did the NDA government not introduce a bill to ban lynching, despite apex court calling for such a law, he asked.