New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted four weeks time to the Centre to file its reply on a batch of petitions on triple talaq and the plight of Muslim women. A bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice DY Chandrachud gave time after additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta sought more time to respond.
Zakia Somen, the co-founder of the ‘Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan’ (BMMA) and one of the petitioners asking a ban on triple talaq, has said the method of divorcing women followed in India should be abolished as it is “un-Quranic”.
Her reaction came just after All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) filed an affidavit in the apex court, stating that “personal laws cannot be re-written in the name of social reforms” on September 2nd.
The AIMPLB, in its counter affidavit filed in the apex court, had said the contentious issue relating to Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat) and nikah halala are matters of “legislative policy” and cannot be interfered with.
The board also said that practices provided by Muslim Personal Law on the issues of marriage, divorce and maintenance were based on holy scripture Al-Quran and “courts cannot supplant its own interpretations over the text of scriptures”
AIMPLB and Jamiat-e-Ulema had defended triple talaq and said it was part of the Quran-dictated personal law which was beyond the ambit of judicial scrutiny.
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The board had said though it was the “least appreciated” form of terminating a marriage, yet it was “very much effective” and in line with the Shariat law. It further said that since part III of the Constitution does not touch upon personal laws of the parties, the apex court cannot examine the question of constitutional validity of practices of marriage, divorce, and maintenance in Muslim personal law.
The board also said all the sources of Muslim personal law have been approved and endorsed by Holy Quran.