SC to decide its power to go into triple talaq, polygamy

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, June 29

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would first decide if it had power to go into the validity of ‘triple talaq’, polygamy and other provisions of Muslim Personal Law before setting up a larger Bench of five judges for the purpose.

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A Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and AM Khanwilkar made the remark as All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) pleaded that such personal laws were based on the tenets of Islam and as such the judiciary had no power to adjudicate on the validity of these laws in the face of women’s fundamental right to equality.

The Bench was hearing a batch of PILs, including a suo motu petition, for and against such laws. It, however, rejected a plea by one of the petitioners for a ban on media holding debates the issue, particularly during Ramzan. The petitioners were also free to take part in such debates in order to create public awareness on the issue, it clarified.

The Bench asked all the petitioners to get ready for arguments on whether the issue should be decided by the judiciary or left to the lawmakers to take a call.  

It then directed the Centre to file its response to the PILs in six weeks. Among the petitioners are two more Muslim women who have challenged the validity of ‘triple talaq’, polygamy and remarriage restrictions.

While Aafreen Rehman, a resident of Jaipur, has questioned her husband’s move to divorce her through “speed post,” another woman, Badar Sayeed, ex-MLA of Tamil Nadu, has petitioned the SC pleading that Kazis in her state were routinely and habitually issuing certificates to Muslim men, validating ‘triple talaq’.

On March 28, a Bench comprising CJI Thakur and Justice UU Lalit asked the Centre to submit to the court the report of an experts’ panel that had studied the status of women since 1989 and the impact of personal laws on them.

AIMPLB has filed an application pleading to be heard on SC’s move to go into the validity of personal laws in the context of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

The Bench sought the panel’s report on a PIL by Shayara Bano, a victim of triple talaq. Constituted in February 2012, the 14-member panel headed by Prof Pam Rajput of Panjab University had submitted its report in 2015.

In its report titled “Women and the law: An assessment of family laws with focus on laws relating to marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and succession”, the panel is understood to have recommended amendments to the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, banning triple talaq and polygamy and providing for statutory interim maintenance to Muslim women.

In her petition, Bano pleaded that the marriage and divorce acts of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsies did not have such gender discriminatory provisions.

The apex court had taken suo motu notice of various personal laws while dealing with a matrimonial dispute.