Centre defends law against triple talaq, says it legitimised ‘abandonment’ of Muslim women

Government defends criminalisation of triple talaq as a practice against women's rights, marriage sanctity, and social stability.

The Union government in the Supreme Court has justified the Central law criminalising triple talaq, saying the “practice legitimised and institutionalised abandonment of wives by their husbands” and was “neither Islamic nor legal”.

A 433-page counter affidavit filed by the Centre in the Court reminded the Court of its own Constitution Bench judgment of 2017 in the Shayara Bano case, which had held triple or instant talaq (talaq-e-biddat) manifestly arbitrary.

The government said all it did with the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 was make a practice called “manifestly arbitrary” by the Supreme Court a non-bailable criminal offence punishable with three years’ imprisonment.

“Triple talaq was not a private wrong done to one woman. It was a public wrong which militates against the rights of women and the social institution of marriage itself,” the government said.

The Centre said the concept of crime keeps on changing with change in the political, economic and social set up the of the country.

Also read: Five years after Supreme Court’s triple talaq verdict, petitioners living life as ‘half-divorcees’

The 2019 law seeks to criminalise a practice which had neither legal nor religious sanction and discriminatory towards married Muslim women.