practice of instant talaq

NEW DELHI: The government does not plan to bring any legislation to ban triple talaq as the five-judge Supreme Court bench by a majority verdict has held instant divorce as unconstitutional and illegal, a top government source said.There was no requirement of a legislation to implement this order, the functionary added and pointed out that anyone persisting with thecould be prosecuted under domestic violence laws. Such a violator could be sent to jail if a woman approached the police for harassment on these grounds and the SC order would act as a deterrent seems to be the view of the government in the wake of the verdict.“India of 2017 is not the India of 1986-87, the leadership of Narendra Modi is not the same as that of Rajiv Gandhi,” law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, referring to the Shah Bano judgment of the apex court which the then Rajiv Gandhi government, enjoying absolute majority in Parliament , overturned in 1986, diluting rights of Muslim women for maintenance on the grounds of triple talaq.Th government, he said, strongly backed the judgment and would “consider the issue in a structured manner”. He said this was the beginning of the fight for equality for Muslim women. Prasad said the issue was not of religion and religious practices, it was of gender justice, gender dignity and gender equality. “It’s a great dawn for women’s empowerment….We need to understand that 22 countries have regulated triple talaq, abolished it or laid down stringent preconditions for its exercise but India being a secular country it was insulated by this change,” the law minister said.Terming the SC judgment agreat legal and moral victory for women in India, the minister said he had the support of PM Modi who wanted the government to take a strong stand in the courts on this issue. Prasad pointed to the judgment of Justice Kurian Joseph, saying what was held to be bad in the Quran could not be good in Shariat, adding that the government had stressed that several Muslim-majority nations had done away with or restricted triple talaq.