Q. In which of the following landmark cases, the Supreme Court had declared the practise of Triple Talaq (talaq-e-biddat) as unconstitutional?
Answer:
Shayara Bano case
Notes:
- The Mohd. Ahmad Khan vs. Shah Bano Begum & Ors. or the Shah Bano maintenance case is seen as one of the legal milestones in battle for protection of rights of Muslim women. Shah Bano went to court and filed a claim for maintenance for herself and her five children under Section 123 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The section puts a legal obligation on a man to provide for his wife during the marriage and after divorce too if she isn’t able to fend for herself. However, Khan contested the claim on the grounds that the Muslim Personal Law in India required the husband to only provide maintenance for the iddat period after divorce.
- Iddat is the waiting period a woman must observe after the death of her husband or divorce before she can marry another man. The length of the iddat period is circumstantial. The period is usually three months after either of the two instances. In case the woman is pregnant, the period carries on until the childbirth.
- Justice Y.V. Chandrachud cited section 125 in his decision. The liability imposed by section 125 to maintain close relatives who are indigent is founded upon the individual’s obligation to the society to prevent vagrancy and destitution. That is the moral edict of the law and morality cannot be clubbed with religion.
- Rajiv Gandhi Congress government passed the Muslim Women (Protection on Divorce Act), 1986 to overturn the verdict in the Shah Bano case and said the maintenance period can only be made liable for the iddat period. The new law said that if a woman wasn’t able to provide for herself, the magistrate had the power to direct the Wakf Board for providing the aggrieved woman means of sustenance and for her dependent children too.
- The apex court, though upholding the validity of the new law, said the liability can’t be restricted to the period of iddat. One of the key points of relevance in the verdict that set it apart from previous cases was the recognition of women’s claim for treatment with equality and dignity, particularly in cases of marriage.
- The Supreme Court in Shayara Bano case(2017) had declared the practise of Triple Talaq (talaq-e-biddat) as unconstitutional.
- Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of India that decriminalised all consensual sex among adults in private, including homosexual sex.