The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and other respondents on a petition seeking uniform, mandatory procedural safeguards and guidelines for all modes of 'talaq' under Muslim personal law.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted the petitioner's counsel's submission challenging the constitutional validity of 'Talaq-e-Hasan'—a practice where a husband can dissolve a marriage by pronouncing 'talaq' once per month across three consecutive months.
The court tagged the current matter with an existing petition filed by a Muslim woman challenging her husband's use of 'Talaq-e-Hasan'.
The new petition asks the court to declare 'Talaq-e-Hasan' and all forms of unilateral, extra-judicial 'talaq' an evil practice that must be prohibited. It requests retrospective and ongoing financial and social protection measures for women and children impacted by arbitrary divorces.
Additionally, the plea urges the court to direct the Centre to "frame and implement uniform procedural safeguards and legally enforceable guidelines governing all forms of 'talaq'/divorce under Muslim personal law, so as to ensure fairness, reconciliation, transparency and protection of the fundamental rights of women guaranteed under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution".
Specific prayers in the petition include:
- Striking down Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, as unconstitutional to the extent that it validates 'Talaq-e-Hasan'.
- Directing the central government to enact comprehensive, gender-neutral, and religion-neutral procedures for marriage dissolution in line with fundamental rights under Articles 14 (Equality Before Law), 15 (Prohibition of Discrimination), and 21 (Protection of Life and Personal Liberty).
- Declaring that the "absence of statutory safeguards regulating polygamy under Muslim personal law, insofar as it permits a Muslim man to contract multiple marriages without ensuring equality, dignity, informed consent, financial security and constitutional protection to the existing wife/wives, is arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution".
- Ruling that entering into a subsequent marriage without the free, prior, and informed consent of an existing spouse, or by concealing such intent, is arbitrary and unconstitutional.
Under the rules of 'Talaq-e-Hasan', divorce becomes final upon the third pronouncement in the third month if the couple has not resumed cohabitation. If cohabitation resumes after the first or second pronouncement, the divorce process is automatically revoked and the marriage remains intact.
This legal action follows the Supreme Court's landmark 2017 ruling, which struck down instant triple 'talaq' as unconstitutional, arbitrary, and violative of women's fundamental rights.