Supreme Court Orders Clubbing Of Pleas Challenging Triple Talaq Law

The Supreme Court has ordered the submission of a new plea contesting the legitimacy of the Triple Talaq law criminalizes instant divorce among Muslims.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the clubbing of a new plea contesting the legitimacy of the Triple Talaq law, with those already pending before the court. A bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, decided to hear the plea in addition to ongoing cases on which the Center received notices in 2019.

Amir Rashadi Madani, a resident of Azamgarh , Uttar Pradesh, has submitted a fresh appeal, challenging the Triple Talaq law, which makes the practice of instant divorce by Muslims via Triple Talaq a criminal offense, and can invite a prison sentence of up to three years.

The law was passed in 2019.

Response From The Court

The CJI during the brief hearing questioned how the regulations infringe men’s rights . The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, according to Madani’s lawyer, makes quick Triple Talaq illegal and imposes penalties on men.

The attorney argued that sections 3 and 4 of the law are in conflict with one another. Terms in Section 3 Section 4 of the law prohibits triple talaq and stipulates that spouses who issue a quick divorce by this method will be termed to a three-year jail sentence and a penalty.

The judgment then mandated that the two Muslim organizations, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema, which is a religious association of Sunni Muslim scholars and clerics in Kerala, submit the pleas that they had previously filed on the matter.

On August 23, 2019, the apex court had agreed to examine the validity of the Act.

Why Is The Law Being Challenged?

A request to deem the law “unconstitutional” has been made by Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema and Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind to the court.

The Jamiat argued in its appeal that “criminalising a mode of divorce in one particular religion while keeping the subject of marriage and divorce in other religions only within the purview of civil law, leads to discrimination, which is not in conformity with the mandate of Article 15” .

The Constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity, caste, sex, or place of birth (Article 15).

The Jamiat further claimed that there was no requirement to enact this law when already the pronouncement of Triple Talaq by a Muslim husband upon his wife had already been declared “void and illegal”.

Jamiat in its plea stated that,”However, the impugned Act criminalises the act of pronouncement of talaq by a Muslim husband and makes it a cognizable offence, without appreciating that such pronouncement had already been declared unconstitutional and amounted to nullity in the eyes of law”.

The plea referred to the Act’s section that prescribes a fine and a maximum sentence of three years in jail, calling it a “ill-conceived provision which imposes excessive and disproportionate punishment”.

(With inputs from agencies)