NEW LAW IF TRIPLE TALAQ GOES: GOVT

The government will write a new matrimony law for Muslims to fill a legal vacuum should the Supreme Court strike down triple talaq, the country’s top law officer said on Monday.

Triple talaq is the lone controversial way Muslim men can divorce. It allows a man to end a marriage by uttering the word talaq thrice in quick succession.

The top court is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging triple talaq. The government too wants to scrap the practice which it calls unconstitutional and one that is against women.

Should the court strike down triple talaq and the government bring in a law it could mean an overhaul of Muslim personal laws in India that are guided by a 1937 Sharia code.

India has separate sets of personal laws for each religion governingmarriage,divorce,succession, adoption and maintenance.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar that it wasn’t the court’s job to interpret the Quran and it should consider the constitutional validity of triple talaq and not restrict itself to examining whether the custom was fundamental to practising the faith.

Rohatgi disagreed with the court that the government should first address whether triple talaq is “essential to religion or not”, saying the Supreme Court was not an ecclesiastical court.

“If the practice of instant divorce is struck down then the Centre will bring a law to regulate marriage and divorce among the Muslim community,” he said.