Barely days after the central government brought in an ordinance to criminalise instant triple talaq practised in the Muslim community, it has been challenged in the Supreme Court. According to reports, A Kerala based Sunni organisation has moved to the apex court against the ordinance.
Kerala based Sunni organisation Samastha Kerala Jam’eyyath Al-Ulama, which is an organisation of Sunni Muslim scholars and clerics has reportedly challenged the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance, 2018 with a petition in the Supreme Court that cites the ordinance in violation of articles 14,15 and 21 of the Indian constitution. It also reportedly states that the very promulgation of the ordinance is done by a misuse of article 123.
The petition also reportedly states that after the Supreme Court’s ruling in December last year that pronounced that triple talaq is unconstitutional, there was no need for a separate ordinance to criminalise the now inconsequential term. The petition also reportedly questions the timing of the central government’s decision to bring the ordinance and asks why it had not been brought in the 67 years that the constitution has existed and only now. It also adds that the ordinance is brought not to protect the Muslim women but to target the Muslim husbands.
The petition has been filed in the apex court a day after a similar petition was filed in the Bombay High Court where a former councillor, an NGO and an advocate had appealed that the ordinance is null, void arbitrary and it selectively targets the Muslim male.
It is notable here that the central government had brought the ordinance criminalising triple talaq after they could not pass the bill in the Rajya Sabha due to non-cooperation of several political parties. The government had also brought in some changes in the original bill including the provision of bail for the husband and provisions for settlement by mutual agreement between both parties.
