Supreme Court seeks details of FIRs, charge sheets against men for divorcing wives through triple talaq

Under the law, instant 'triple talaq' has been declared as illegal and void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to submit data on the number of FIRs registered against Muslim men and charge sheets filed in cases concerning divorces through banned triple talaq under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar passed the directions while hearing pleas challenging the criminalisation of triple talaq.

Defending the enactment, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, contended that the Act is required to protect women and there should be a deterrent.

The bench said the Centre has penalised the very act of pronouncing the triple talaq.

“Now all FIRs are all centralised... tell us now how many cases are pending and if any challenge is pending before other High Courts," the bench asked.

Advocate Nizam Pasha, representing one of the petitioners, submitted that mere pronouncement has been penalised now with the law.

Senior advocate M R Shamshad, appearing for the petitioner, contended that such utterances and emotional violence are covered under the Domestic Violence Act.

Mehta, however, shot back, "This is like saying that from the next moment, you are not my wife and a human being thrown out of a man’s life and also the house."

"We do not think the Domestic Violence Act will cover it,” the bench observed.

The court asked the parties to file written submissions. It asked Mehta to check and give the data on the number of FIRs registered, including rural data.

“Let them file the data, we will know exactly as to what is the situation,” the bench said.

Pasha said abandonment is not an offence for any other community. Mehta said triple talaq is not there in other communities. Shamshad contended that in criminal offences, even in Delhi FIRs are not registered for months in matrimonial cases, when there is a serious issue of beating etc.

"Here, somebody has said three times talaq then he will go to jail, that is the issue,” he said.

The bench said most of the lawyers would not argue that triple talaq was the right practice, probably they would argue on the aspect of the criminalisation of it. The petitioners’ counsel emphasised that the practice of triple talaq is gone.

Having noted that many organisations are challenging the validity of the 2019 Act, the bench decided to remove the name of all petitioners and rechristend the matter as 'In Re: Challenge to Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Amendment Act, 2019'.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing in the week commencing on March 17 this year.

During the hearing, the bench raised questions on criminalisation of the pronouncement of triple talaq.

“If divorce through triple talaq is not recognised by law or the SC judgment holding the field now, it means the relation between the husband and wife continues ...you have criminalized the talaq pronouncement," the bench asked Mehta.

As the court concluded the hearing on the matter, Mehta quoted former Pakistan Civil Service officer and poetess Parveen Shakir who was divorced by her husband: "तलाक़ दे तो रहे हो इताब-ओ-क़हर के साथ — मेरी जवानी भी लौटा दो मेरी महर के साथ".

In August, 2024, the Centre has defended in the Supreme Court its 2019 law making the practice of triple talaq among Muslims as punishable offence upto three years jail term. In an affidavit, the Union government said, the practice is neither legal nor has got religious sanction for it allowed instantaneous voiding the martial tie, and legitimised abandonment of wives of husbands.

"The practice of Tala-e-Biddat (instant pronouncement of triple talaq) did not simply result in a private injury but in a public wrong as it militated against the rights of women and the social institution of marriage itself," the Ministry of Law and Justice has said.