India’s Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine the constitutional validity of a law passed by parliament last month outlawing the practice of instant triple talaq among Muslims.
"We will examine this," an apex court bench consisting of Justices N V Ramana and Ajay Rastogi told senior lawyer and Congess leader Salman Khurshid who was appearing for one of the petitioners challenging the law.
Khurshid told the top court that there were many dimensions of the law, including making the practice a punishable offence and jail term of up to three years, which was required to be examined by the court. The apex court was hearing three petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the law. The petitioners want the court to declare the law unconstitutional.The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights of Marriage) Bill, 2019, which makes the practice of instant triple talaq a penal offence was cleared by Parliament in July this year.
In August 2017, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court had struck down instant triple talaq in a split verdict 3-2. Three of the five judges on the Constitution Bench — Justices Rohinton F Nariman, Uday U Lalit and Kurian Joseph —had called the practice un-Islamic and “arbitrary” and disagreed with the view that triple talaq was an integral part of religious practice.
The present petitions were filed in the Supreme Court a day after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the legislation passed by both Houses of parliament.
