SC notice to Centre on pleas against talaq law

New Delhi, August 23

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre on a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the newly enacted law, which made the practice of instant triple talaq among Muslims a punishable offence attracting a three-year jail term.

“Why such a practice can’t be made punishable if it’s still prevalent?” wondered a Bench headed by Justice NV Ramana after senior counsel Salman Khurshid said triple talaq had already been declared illegal and there was no need to criminalise it.

The Bench, however, agreed to examine the issues raised in the petitions filed by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama and Islamic scholar Amir Rashadi Madni.

The petitioners challenged the validity of The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, on the ground that it violated various provisions of the Constitution, including fundamental right against discrimination under Article 15, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

A five-judge Constitution Bench had in August 2017 declared the practice of instant triple talaq unconstitutional. Despite that, Muslim men were pronouncing instant triple talaq in various parts of the country. The Act makes it illegal to pronounce talaq thrice — spoken, written or through SMS or WhatsApp or any other e-chat — in one sitting. According to it, any pronouncement of talaq by a Muslim husband upon his wife, by words, either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner whatsoever shall be void and illegal.

The Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind has claimed that since the pronouncement of talaq by a Muslim husband upon his wife had already been declared “void and illegal”, there was no requirement to enact the law. The Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema alleged the intent behind the Act was not abolition of triple talaq but punishing Muslim husbands.  — TNS