SC verdict on triple talaq validity today
new delhi — The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict on the constitutional validity of triple talaq in one go.
The five-judge bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer will pronounce verdict on the validity of the custom which is in practice for the last 1,400 years but “illegal” in many countries.
The hearing, spread over five days from May 12 to May 18, was rooted in the apex court’s October 16, 2015 order directing the separate listing of a PIL addressing the question of the rights of Muslim women.
At the outset of the hearing, the court had made it clear that it would not examine the validity of anything that formed an intrinsic part of Islamic religious practices.
The court had framed three questions to be addressed by all the parties that included whether triple talaq in one go was fundamental to Islam, whether it was sacrosanct to Islam and whether the practice was an enforceable fundamental right.
In the course of the hearing, the AIMPLB issued an advisory to telling the qazis to give an option to Muslim women to opt out of instant triple talaq before giving consent for ‘nikah’.
In their affidavit before the court, they said that qazis all over the country have been instructed that they would while performing nikah, record in the Nikahnama, that the bride has opted out of triple talaq in one sitting.
The court was not appreciative of the government position that the top court should first pronounce on the constitutional validity of the triple talaq and other forms of talaq, only then it would bring a law.
“We may or may not (decide the issue), but you do,” Chief Justice Khehar had said when the Central government told the court that it should step in a situation where there is no legislation.
While founding its case on gender equality, the government had linked the issue of triple talaq with that of constitutional morality, but the court termed its position a “whitewash”.
The Centre sought to flag the issue of gender equality of Muslim women vis-a-vis women in other religions and in other countries. —