Plea against validity of Triple Talaq law clubbed with pending petitions by SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that a new plea challenging the legitimacy of key articles of the 2019 law, which make the practice of instantly divorce via Triple Talaq a punishable violation, be combined with those already pending before the court. Violation of the law results in imprisonment for up to three years.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra consented to consider the plea, as well as other pending petitions on which the Centre was served with notice in 2019.

The fresh plea has been filed by Amir Rashadi Madani, a resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.

During the brief hearing, the CJI asked how the provisions violate the rights of men.

The counsel for Madani said the provisions of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 criminalise instant Triple Talaq and provide for punishment to men.

Sections 3 and 4 of the law are contrary to each other, the lawyer claimed.

Section 3 terms Triple Talaq as illegal and section 4 provides for a years jail term and fine for husbands for granting instant divorce through this mode.

The bench then ordered the tagging of the pleas filed earlier on the issue by two Muslim organisations-- Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and 'Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema', a religious organisation of Sunni Muslim scholars and clerics in Kerala.

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

Both Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema' have urged the court to declare the law "unconstitutional".

Jamiat claimed in its petition 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".

Article 15 of the Constitution deals with the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Jamiat has claimed since the pronouncement of Triple Talaq by a Muslim husband upon his wife had already been declared "void and illegal", there was no requirement to enact the law.

"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," Jamiat has said in its plea.

Referring to the provision of the Act which stipulates a punishment of up to three years in jail along with a fine, the plea said it is an "ill-conceived provision which imposes excessive and disproportionate punishment".

With PTI inputs