Rihanna Bano, daughter of Naushad Ali in Barabanki district of UP was harassed by her in-laws after the demand of Rs 1.5 lakh cash and gold chain as dowry was not met by her family members. She accused that her husband, Mohammad Zafar, son of Mohammad Shami who is presently working in Saudi Arabia, gave her triple talaq over the phone for not getting the demanded dowry.
The matter pertained to the Asandra police station in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. Police have registered a case against three accused including the spouse and started an investigation.
The victim who is a resident of Supamau village informed that her marriage took place on 13 June 2019 with Mohammad Zafar of Begum Purwa 10 number Safed Colony, Babu Purwa police station, Kanpur district. After her husband left for Saudi Arabia, Manjhiya Sameer and her mother-in-law Ayesha Bano started assaulting her.
Her husband then pronounced triple talaq over the phone from the gulf country. The police didn’t take any action on her complaint and she went to court for assistance. Amar Chaurasia, the in charge of the Asandra police station ordered the arrest of the perpetrators on the orders of the court. All of them have been charged with dowry harassment and other offences.
Ban on Triple Talaq in India
The triple talaq is a form of divorce that was practised in Islam, whereby a Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq (the Arabic word for divorce) three times. The pronouncement could be oral or written, or, in recent times, delivered by electronic means such as telephone, text, email or social media. He did not need to cite any cause for the divorce and the spouse need not have been present at the time of pronouncement.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 passed on 30 July 2019 after a very long discussion finally got the verdict (the Indian Supreme Court judgement of August 2017) to all women. It made the practice illegal in India on 1 August 2019 and replaced the triple talaq ordinance promulgated in February 2019.
It stipulated that instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) in any form (spoken, written, or by electronic means such as email or text) is illegal and void with up to three years in jail for the husband. Under the new law, an aggrieved woman is entitled to demand maintenance for her dependent children.
The bill followed a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that the practice of instant triple talaq is unconstitutional and a divorce pronounced by uttering talaq three times in one sitting is void and illegal.
