The Supreme Court has agreed to hear pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
A Bench of Justices N.V. Ramana and Ajay Rastogi issued notice to the Centre seeking their response on the batch of petitions challenging newly enacted law on triple talaq as "unconstitutional" on grounds that it allegedly violates the provisions of the Constitution.
"We will examine this," the Bench told senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who was appearing for one of the petitioners. However, there will be no stay on Triple Talaq Act for now.
Khurshid told the Bench that there were many dimensions, including making the practice a punishable offence and jail term of up to three years, which was required to be examined by the top court.
He argued that triple talaq had already been declared unconstitutional by the court, and there was no need to criminalise it.
“Why such a practice can't be criminalised if it is still prevalent?” asked Justice Ramana.
The Supreme Court had declared 'talaq-e-biddat' or any other similar form of talaq having the effect of instantaneous and irrevocable divorce pronounced by a Muslim husband, unconstitutional, vide its judgment dated August 22, 2017 in Shayara Bano v. Union of India & Ors., (2017) 9 SCC 1.
Subsequently, the triple talaq law- Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 was passed by the Central government on July 31, 2019, criminalizing such pronouncement and prescribing a punishment of up to 3 years imprisonment for the same.
