The Supreme Court on Thursday commence its marathon hearing over a batch of pleas by Muslim women rejecting their religious convention of practicing triple talaq and said it would examine whether triple talaq is fundamental to religion.
The hearings have been designated to a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar and four other judges, namely Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Uday Umesh Lalit and S. Abdul Nazeer.
We will also examine whether triple talaq is part of enforceable fundamental right, said the top court.
The court, however, said that the issue of practice of polygamy among Muslims may not be part of its deliberations.
Relentless debates on the validity and plausibility of this practice were instigated soon after a petitioner, Shayara Banu, challenged the Muslim personal law over instantaneous triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat), polygamy and nikah-halala.
Supporting the stance of ending the practice of triple talaq, the Allahabad High Court earlier asserted that the rights of any person, including Muslim women, cannot be violated in the name of ‘personal law’.
It said the basic and human rights cannot be exploited on the basis of gender.
“A Muslim husband cannot give divorce in such a manner which would put a question mark on equal rights,” the court observed.
In December last year, the Allahabad High Court termed the Islamic practice of divorcing a woman by uttering the word “talaq” thrice as “unconstitutional”.
