Updated By: LatestGKGS Desk
Union Cabinet approved Triple Talaq Ordinance, making it a punishable offence
Union Cabinet approved Triple Talaq Ordinance, making it an offence: Details, About, Background, Highlights
Union Cabinet on 19th September 2018 approved an ordinance making instant triple talaq a punishable offence.
The Union Cabinet approval takes the bill a step closer to becoming a law.
The ordinance for triple talaq has similar provisions as mentioned in original the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017, which was cleared by the Lok Sabha in December 2017. However, the bill was stuck in the Rajya Sabha.
It faced a stiff resistance in the Rajya Sabha where several opposition lawmakers argued over the criminal provisions in the draft law.
In a perspective of the growing opposition, the Government on 9th August 2018, approved three amendments in the instant triple talaq bill, making it permissible for a magistrate to give bail for the offence.
Background
The Bill was prepared following the Supreme Court’s verdict of August 22, 2017, which held the Islamic practice of 'instant’ triple talaq' as unconstitutional.
The verdict was delivered by a 5-judge bench led by the then Chief Justice J S Kehar. All the 5 judges belonged to 5 different religions. It came out in a ratio of 3:2
About Triple Talaq
In Muslims, marriage is treated as a social contract and the Muslim Sharia (Islamic Law) provides the ways to terminate the marriage in the form of talaq.
The term 'talaq' means 'freeing or undoing the knot', referring to a divorce.
Triple talaq is basically a process of Divorce wherein the husband pronounces three talaqs upon wife, one in each menstrual cycle, only to ensure that she is not pregnant.
