Supreme Court seeks details on triple talaq cases; orders Centre to submit FIRs, chargesheets
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to provide details as to the number of FIRs and chargesheets filed against men accused of pronouncing instant triple talaq to divorce their wives in violation of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, which criminalised the practice of instant triple talaq among Muslims.
“The respondent (Centre) shall file the total number of FIRs and chargesheets pending under Section 3 and 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights of Marriage) Act 2019. The parties also file written submissions not exceeding three pages in support of their contention,” a bench led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna said while hearing multiple petitions challenging the validity of the Act.
The bench posted the matter for final hearing in the week commencing March 17.
According to Section 3 of the Act, “Any pronouncement of talaq by a Muslim husband upon his wife, by words, either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner whatsoever, shall be void and illegal.”
Section 4 of the Act says, “Any Muslim husband who pronounces talaq referred to in Section 3 upon his wife shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta defended the law contending that penalising an activity was a matter of legislative policy. He sought to counter the allegation that the Act under question imposed disproportionate punishment, by saying that the maximum punishment prescribed was only three years imprisonment whereas many other laws aimed at protecting women prescribed a higher punishment.
As petitioners’ counsel Nizam Pasha submitted that the mere utterance of the word ‘talaq’ thrice has been criminalised, Mehta said there were provisions such as Section 506 IPC which penalised utterances.
Instant ‘triple talaq’, also known as ‘talaq-e-biddat’, is an instant divorce whereby a Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by pronouncing the word ‘talaq’ three times in one go.
In a landmark verdict, the top court on August 22, 2017 declared unconstitutional the practice of ‘triple talaq’ among Muslims on the ground that it was against the basic tenets of Quran and violated the Islamic law.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 declared instant ‘triple talaq’ as illegal and void and prescribed a jail term of three years for the husband.
