The centre said it opposed triple talaq not with the intent to bring Muslim Personal Law under UCC but because it infringed upon a woman's individual freedom.
The centre will oppose the provisions of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy at the Supreme Court on the grounds that it infringes on the individual freedom of a woman and not with the intent to bring the Muslim Personal law under the Uniform Civil Code, said the women and child ministry. An official in the ministry said that since these provisions are discriminatory against women, the WCD was initially roped in to draft the government’s version. However, it is understood that WCD minister Maneka Gandhi did not want to tread on the sensitive issue alone, and asked for the intervention of the PMO.
“Following a PMO nod, Gandhi held inter-ministerial meetings with finance minister Arun Jaitley, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and home minister Rajnath Singh to draft a consolidated response. We sent out inputs to the law minister early this month,” said the official. Since triple talaq is a provision that is extended only to men, the ministry had to speak on behalf of the women, said the official. The centre is going to employ a 1952 Bombay High Court judgement as part of the argument.
The judgement in the The State Of Bombay versus Narasu Appa Mali case, delivered by a two-member bench of Judges CJ Chagla and J Gajendcagadkar, held that if any personal law is in clear contravention of individual freedom then it is not tenable.
The Pam Rajput Committee on Status of Women in India, in its report to the WCD government in 2014, held that personal laws that discriminatory to women must be amended. This included the recommendations to abolish triple talaq under Muslim law, the idea of illegitimate children under Hindu Marriage Act, and the mandatory two-year separation as a ground for divorce as mandated by the Christian law.
“Section 16 (of the Hindu Marriage Act) should be amended to include all children born outside wedlock and not only children of void and voidable marriages. Further the term ‘illegitimate’ should not be used in any statute of document,” read the report.
The government will take up changes in the other personal laws in “due course of time” said the official. “The issue of triple talaq was in court when we were roped in. As in when things develop, we will deal with the Christian law and the Hindu Marriage Act, too,” said the official.
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