12/05/2017
The 5-judge Constitution bench hearing petitions challenging triple talaq today posed pointed questions to senior counsel Salman Khurshid who is assisting the court.
When Khurshid submitted that Islam considered instant triple talaq “sinful but valid in law”, Chief Justice J S Khehar asked ” can what is sinful in the eyes of God be lawful?. If God considers it a sin it cant be legal. Can it be? We are just asking”.
Justice Kurian Joseph repeated the same question rephrasing it a bit asking: “is something which is Islamically abhorrent, sinful or under any religious law it is distasteful, can it be validated by law made by man?”
Khurshid replied in the negative saying ” it cannot be “.
The CJI chipped in again to say ” its like…somewhat the same situation…death penalty is wrong and sinful in many countries but it is legal”.
He also suggested that pronouncement of triple talaq in one sitting should also be considered as pronouncement of talaq one time.
Senior Advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Forum for Awareness of National Security, argued that the practice of triple talaq violates Article 14 (right to equality) of Constitution.
“It is a method of terminating marriage contract which lies only with men but not with women,” Jethmalani said.
He also submitted that triple talaq violates Article 15 since it is it discriminates on the basis of sex.
This method is abhorrent to Holy Quran and Prophet. It is not only sinful but also repugnant on the ground of sex
On the essence of the Holy Quran , he said ‘whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy his path to paradise’.
“I am a Hindu but a student of Bible and Quran. I consider the Prophet of Islam greater than the prophets of other religion”
“Triple talaq is inherently unequal to women. The practice is abhorrent to God and no amount of advocacy by man can cure it”.
Khurshid replied that it is not practiced outside prompting the CJI to ask “Oh so is it India-specific?”
Framing issues, the CJI led bench at the outset yesterday said three important things
1) We will examine whether triple talaq is fundemental to Muslim religion?
2)If there is an enforceable right?
3)We will not go into polygamy and Nikah halala and only confine ourselves to examining constitutional validity of triple talaq.
The bench had made it clear that it was not dealing with the issue of Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which is currently being examined by the Law Commission of India.
