If the Supreme Court completely strikes down triple talaq, we will bring a law, says government.
The government on Monday told the Supreme Court that it will come out with a legislation to regulate marriage and divorce among Muslims, if the top court holds triple talaq as invalid and unconstitutional.
Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi told the Constitution Bench that triple talaq violates Muslim women's right to equality within the community, and also within the country.
Earlier in the day, the top court considered Rohatgi's plea to discuss issues of polygamy and 'nikah halala', as the Centre insisted deliberations on these aspects as well. However, the court said that it will keep the issue pending due to limited time.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said, "It may not be possible to deal with all the three issues in the limited time we have. We will keep them pending for future."
The Centre's assertion assumes significance in the backdrop of the remarks of the apex court that it will only deal with the issue of triple talaq that too if it was fundamental to Islam.
Last week, the top court commenced its marathon hearing over a batch of pleas by Muslim women rejecting their religious convention of practicing triple talaq and said it would examine whether triple talaq is fundamental to religion.
The Supreme Court has also observed that the triple talaq was the worst and undesirable form of dissolution of marriage.
The hearings have been designated to a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar and four other judges, namely Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Uday Umesh Lalit and S. Abdul Nazeer.
Nikah Halala is a practice intended to curb the incidence of divorce under which a man cannot remarry his former wife without her going through the process of marrying someone else, consummating it, getting divorced, observing the separation period called 'Iddat' and then returning to him.
Relentless debates on the validity and plausibility of this practice were instigated soon after a petitioner, Shayara Banu, challenged the Muslim personal law over instantaneous triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat), polygamy and nikah-halala.
Supporting the stance of ending the practice of triple talaq, the Allahabad High Court earlier asserted that the rights of any person, including Muslim women, cannot be violated in the name of 'personal law'.
It said the basic and human rights cannot be exploited on the basis of gender.
"A Muslim husband cannot give divorce in such a manner which would put a question mark on equal rights," the court observed.
In December last year, the Allahabad High Court termed the Islamic practice of divorcing a woman by uttering the word "talaq" thrice as "unconstitutional".
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