NEW DELHI: Can a “sinful” practice be made part of a law made by man, the Supreme Court asked when senior advocate and Congress functionary Salman Khurshid said triple talaq or instant divorce could not find a place in the Sharia ordained by god.Making a bold observation on Friday, Khurshid said, “The All India Muslim Personal Law Board says triple talaq is sinful yet valid. I personally cannot imagine any religion which can validate a sin. A sin cannot be part of Sharia, which is god ordained. Something which is sinful for the law ordained by god cannot be legal.”The Supreme Court bench sought a confirmation from Khurshid by repeating what he said, “So, what you are saying is that triple talaq cannot have been ordained by god if it is sinful. You are asking how a practice which is abhorrent in the eyes of god can be kept valid by a law made by men.”The Congress veteran reiterated his view, saying, “Something which is sinful or abhorrent cannot be made valid by man-made law.” His comment indicated his belief that triple talaq was not intrinsic to the practice of Islam.Salman Khurshid’s view that sharia cannot sanction the “sinful” practice of triple talaq could be significant as the SC had said on Thursday that it would not proceed further in the matter if it came to the conclusion that triple talaq was part of the fundamental right to practice religion.Khurshid is assisting a five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman, U U Lalit and Abdul Nazeer which is testing the constitutional validity of triple talaq.The bench asked him if triple talaq was India specific. Khurshid said, “It is not practised by any other country to my knowledge. Right now it is India specific.”The bench asked, “Why have other countries repealed it?” Khurshid replied, “Probably, whatever is happening in India happened in those countries earlier.”Khurshid, however, argued that the court need not go into the validity of triple talaq if it accepted his suggestion to declare the practice as “single talaq”.He said, “When a married Muslim man pronounces single talaq, a three-month iddat period kicks in during which reconciliation efforts are made by intermediaries. If reconciliation succeeds, he can revoke the talaq. If not, he announces talaq again and the same process gets repeated till the final talaq is pronounced, making divorce irrevocable.“If the SC, like the Delhi HC, rules that pronouncement of triple talaq in one sitting will also be considered as one talaq, then the irrevocability of triple talaq will be erased.If triple talaq is made revocable, like talaq said once, it will solve 90% of the problem. “The solution is available within Islam itself. By ruling triple talaq to be single talaq, the SC can avoid adjudicating the much hyped issue made to look like a big controversy.”Appearing for a woman divorced through triple talaq, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani said, “Triple talaq allows one-sided termination of marriage and that is why it is abhorrent to gender justice. It discriminates a woman by permitting the husband to dump her.This method is abhorrent to the Quran and Islam. No amount of advocacy by humans can make this abhorrent and repugnant practice valid.” Arguments will continue on Monday. “We will limit our scrutiny only to the validity of triple talaq.We will not go into the issue of polygamy and nikah halala,” the bench said.