Plea in SC challenging new law on 'triple talaq'

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court Thursday challenging the newly enacted law which makes the practice of instant divorce through 'triple talaq' among Muslims a punishable offence entailing imprisonment of up to three years.

The fresh plea has been filed by Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, a Muslim body, which sought to declare The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 as "unconstitutional" on the ground that it allegedly violates the provisions of the Constitution.

President Ram Nath Kovind has given assent to the Act which makes 'talaq-e-biddat' or any other similar form of talaq having the effect of instantaneous and irrevocable divorce pronounced by a Muslim husband void and illegal.

Earlier this month, 'Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema', a religious organisation of Sunni Muslim scholars and clerics in Kerala, had also moved the apex court seeking to declare the newly enacted law as "unconstitutional".

In the plea filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, 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.

"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 said.

Referring to the provision of the Act which stipulates punishment of up to three years jail along with fine, the plea said it is an "ill-conceived provision which imposes excessive and disproportionate punishment."
It said that "object of punishment must not be to wreak vengeance but to reform the criminal as to prevent him from further crime."