Cong welcomes ban on instant talaq but says no for law

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 22

The Congress on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court majority order setting aside instant triple talaq but said there's no cause for legal intervention in the matter once the court has spoken its mind.

"The court has today set aside and quashed the practice of instant triple talaq, which was by itself an aberration and adulteration thereby recognising pristine form of religious practice in Islam. We welcome the court order and everyone should respect it", Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said today.

The Congress, however, distanced itself from the court's suggestion to bring a law to ban instant triple talaq saying there's no cause for bringing a law once the court has ruled the practice un-Islamic.

"The suggestion of a law is anyway part of the minority judgment led by Chief Justice of India JS Kehar who held instant triple talaq valid and left it to the Parliament to ban it. You can analyse the judgment and will find that the court by majority has banned talaq-e-biddat, which is not sanctioned by either the Quran or the Hadees, which are the sources of Islamic jurisprudence," Surjewala argued.

Congress sought to differentiate its stand on the matter with that of the BJP saying the BJP was for ban on triple talaq itself while the Congress had always argued against instant form of triple talaq which has no validity in the Qoran, as upheld by the majority SC order today.

Politically the Congress refused to see the court order today as a loss of perception to the BJP and said two former ministers in the Congress government argued in the court against instant triple talaq.

Salman Khurshid and Kapil Sibal, both our former ministers, opposed instant triple talaq in the Apex Court during the hearing. "Our leaders opposed instant triple talaq and that's what the court endorsed," Surjewala said.

From Shah Bano case to today the Congress appears to have shifted its stand though the party leaders did not admit this.