On Monday, the Supreme Court, while hearing a plea on the
divorce norms, directed the Centre to produce the report within six weeks. The
apex court was hearing a plea by a Muslim woman from Uttarakhand against her
triple talaq.
A HIGH-LEVEL committee set up by the Central government to
review the status of women in India has sought a ban on the practice of oral,
unilateral and triple talaq or divorce, as well as polygamy.
The assessment of family laws, examined by The Indian
Express, is part of a voluminous report submitted last year by the panel
appointed by the previous UPA government. The report has not been released in
the public domain.
On Monday, the Supreme Court, while hearing a plea on the
divorce norms, directed the Centre to produce the report within six weeks. The
apex court was hearing a plea by a Muslim woman from Uttarakhand against her
triple talaq.
The report backs the demand for the ban on the grounds that
such talaq renders “wives extremely vulnerable and insecure regarding their
marital status”.
The panel has not only recommended specific amendments to
the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 but also suggested introducing
provisions to provide for interim maintenance.
The report states that payment of maintenance to the wife
and children must be made mandatory in the event of separation or divorce.
While the landmark Supreme Court Judgment of 1985 in the
Shah Bano case recognised the Muslim woman’s right to maintenance, it was never
codified in the Muslim personal law.
The report states: “All judges should be made aware of the
manner in which the SC has interpreted the Muslim Law and has safeguarded the
rights of Muslim women.”
It cites the examples of Shamin Ara vs State of UP where the
apex court laid down strict Quranic injunctions for pronouncing talaq and the
Shabana Bano vs Imran Khan case where it upheld the right to receive
maintenance under section 125 of CRPC until the husband pays his wife lump-sum
maintenance.
“Such progressive judgments are not known to all judges and
magistrates adjudicating over the rights of Muslim women, hence due to
ignorance of law many Muslim women are denied of their rights,” states the
report. It also suggests changing many of the gender-discriminatory provisions
under the Hindu and Christian laws.
“I have not seen the report, but any suggestion to ban
triple talaq or polygamy is not acceptable to us. This will mean direct
interference of the government in religious affairs as Sharia (Islamic law) is
based on the Quran and Hadith, and its jurisprudence is strong as far as Islam
is concerned. This would be against the Constitutional right to freedom of
religion,” said Kamal Faruqui, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board that has been made a party to the Supreme Court petition.
The petition was filed by Shayara Bano who claimed that her
husband gave her triple talaq after subjecting her to cruelty during the course
of their marriage.
The petition states that instantaneous triple talaq has no
foundation in the Quran and many Islamic nations such as Pakistan, Iraq and
Saudi Arabia have banned or restricted such practices. It also points out that
the personal laws of Hindus, Christians and Parsis have evolved over the years
so as to prohibit the practice while Muslim women continue to be denied equal
protection under law and from discrimination on the basis of their gender and
religion.
The 14-member committee was constituted by the Ministry of
Woman and Child Development under the UPA government in February 2012. It was
reconstituted in May 2013 under its present chairperson Pam Rajput, founder
director of Centre for Women’s Studies, Panjab University.
Written by Shalini Nair
Courtesy: The Indian Express
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