Divorced From Reality?

By making it punishable, triple talaq, rendered illegal anyway, has become an offence greater than any in the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act

- Malavika Rajkotia

In a bid to rescue her personal law from the grip of perverse custom, Shayara Bano petitioned the Supreme Court of India to declare talaq-e-biddat (instant triple talaq) illegal.

None of the opponents was in favour of triple talaq either, but they cautioned against political motivations in the name of the ‘Muslim woman’s cause’. They argued that strengthening her economic rights would be more empowering than keeping her in a marital bond that survived only because the husband could not declare talaq three times in quick succession. Such opponents were declared ‘anti-abolitionists’ or ‘pseudo-secular’.

Eventually, the Supreme Court declared talaq-e-biddat as illegal in a balanced judgment that maintained the right to freedom of religion even while trimming the perversities of custom. Bano’s purpose was served by the judgment. Now the government has made good the concern of the ‘anti-abolitionists’ with a proposed bill that does not just reiterate the Supreme Court judgment but also seeks to criminalise the pronouncement of triple talaq.