The Supreme court is set to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict on whether the Muslim practice of triple talaq is in line with the Constitution of India and fundamental to Islam. Triple talaq is the practice under which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by uttering the word “talaq" thrice.

The ruling will have far-reaching impact in reforming the Muslim personal law as it may steer towards putting an end to the arbitrary practice that has drawn widespread criticism over the years for being discriminatory to women. It will also assess the extent of how far the country’s top court can delve when it comes to issues arising from religious civil codes.

Constitutionally, Muslims and other minority religions are allowed to regulate matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance through their own civil codes.

The court had taken up the matter for hearing over six consecutive days in the summer break this year. Judges from different religious backgrounds—Hindu (justice U.U. Lalit), Sikh (Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar), Christian (justice Kurian Joseph), Parsi (justice Rohington F, Nariman) and Muslim (justice S. Abdul Nazeer) formed the five-judge constitution bench that was constituted to address the controversial issue.

As a five-judge bench gears up to rule on the constitutional validity of triple talaq, it is likely to be restricted to this aspect alone and leave issues such as polygamy and nikah halala under the Muslim personal law. Nikah halala requires a female divorcee to marry someone else, consummate the marriage and then get a divorce to remarry her previous husband.

The court’s verdict will arise out of a batch of petitions challenging triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy under Muslim personal law. This included a plea—Muslim women’s quest for equality—which the court took up on its own accord.

During the course of hearings, the top court had observed that the practice of triple talaq was the worst and not a desirable form of dissolution of marriage among Muslims, even though there were schools of thought terming it as legal.

The petitioners are joined by the Centre which has also challenged the practice, calling it “unreasonable, unfair and discriminatory" and said that it goes against the principle of gender justice. Going a step further, it told the court in May that it would bring in a new law to regulate marriage and divorce among Muslims if the practice of triple talaq was declared unconstitutional.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, one of the petitioners, had argued that the court could not delve into personal laws of a community.

Explaining the procedure to be followed under triple talaq, senior advocate Salman Khurshid who was asked by the court to assist in the matter had said, “Divorce cannot come into effect immediately after someone says talaq thrice. Representatives of both parties will try for a reconciliation and a qazi (priest) is informed if it fails,"

On 9 May, the Allahabad high court held that the practice of triple talaq was unconstitutional and violative of basic human rights of Muslim women.

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