Govt says can bring law to replace triple talaq

NEWDELHI: The government would bring a marriage and divorce law for Muslims to fill the gap if the Supreme Court strikes down all three forms of triple talaq, the only way that men from the community can end a marriage, the country’s top law officer said on Monday.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi also asked the five-judge bench led by Chief Justice JS Khehar to declare triple talaq illegal irrespective of whether the holy Quran sanctions it or not. The practice did not abide by the constitutional principles of gender equality, he said.

One of the judges on the bench, Justice UU Lalit, hearing petitions challenging validity of triple talaq, which Muslim men use to severe marriage unilaterally asked: “So if we accept that giving unfettered rights to a husband is bad and we strike down triple talaq, then where will Muslim men go for divorce?”

Rohatgi replied as the guardian of constitution SC must do so and the government would enact a law to fill the vacuum.

A Muslim woman has to move the court for a legal separation from her husband under the 1937 Shariat law.

Justice Khehar reminded Rohatgi SC was also a guardian of minorities and an order on the petitions might involve “tinkering with religion itself.”

India has separate personal laws for each religion governing marriage, divorce, succession, adoption and maintenance.

While the Hindu law overhaul began in the 1950s and continues, activists have long argued that Muslim personal law has remained mostly unchanged.

India is home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population which is governed by the Sharia or Islamic jurisprudence.

Rohatgi said the court was not an ecclesiastical court and its job was not to interpret Quran. “You have to first decide whether this practice is against constitutional morality or not,” the AG submitted, adding all three forms of triple talaq, talaq-e-biddat, talaq hasan and talaq ahasan, are “unilateral, extrajudicial, inequal.”

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board commenced its arguments opposing the petitions. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal denied the Centre’s assertion and will continue on Tuesday.