Law against triple talaq ‘working and achieving intended goals’, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 31

Union Law & Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said, the law against instant triple talaq is working and achieving the intended goals, as the government data has revealed that there has been a sharp decline in the incidences of such cases since the legislation was enacted a year ago.

Talking to The Tribune, the minister, who piloted the “Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act - 2019” in Parliament, said, “If the number of cases of instant triple talaq is declining, it means that that the law is working and achieving the intended goals.”

Marking the completion of one year of the enactment of the “Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act”, Prasad said, “It still remains a painful saga that despite more than 20 Islamic countries having regulated the unjust practice in one form or the other, it took 70 years and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban it in India.”

He further reiterated his assertion that instant triple talaq “is nothing about religion, rather it is mainly about gender justice, gender equality and gender empowerment”.

According to the government data, which is based on the feedback received from Waqf Boards, Minority Commissions and local administration, as against 3,82,964 cases of the triple talaq between 1985 and 2019, which comes to around average of around 11,263 incidents per year, only 1,039 incidence of such act were reported in the past one year since the law was enacted.

State wise data shows that India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh reported only 281 cases in the past one year, as against 63,400 since the famous Shah Bano case shot into the limelight in 1985.   

Shah Bano hailed from Madhya Pradesh and the state reported as many as 22,801 cases during that period, but in last one year there were just 32.

West Bengal had reported the second highest number of cases since 1985 at 51,800, but the practice has seemingly been reined in as the TMC ruled state reported only 201 cases in the last one year. 

State                                      1985-2019                             2019-20

Uttar Pradesh                          63,400                                     281

West Bengal                            51,800                                     201

United Andhra Pradesh           41,382                                     203

Maharashtra                            39,200                                     102

Bihar                                       38,617                                      49

Rajasthan                                33,122                                     83

Haryana                                   29,201                                     26

Kerala                                      23,233                                     19

Madhya Pradesh                     22,801                                      32

Tamil Nadu                             21,200                                       26

Assam                                     19,008                                      17

(Several of the cases are under reconciliation as per the laid down rules of the law)

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