Petition filed against triple talaq ordinance

Mumbai: A former municipal councillor, a city-based NGO and an advocate, jointly approached the Bombay high court challenging provisions of an ordinance that makes the practice of instant triple talaq a punishable offence.

President Ram Nath Kovind had signed the ordinance last Wednesday, following which giving instant triple talaq is now illegal and void, and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband. Seeking to allay fears that the law could be misused, the government also included some safeguards, like a bail provision for the accused husband.

However, the petition moved last Friday by former municipal councillor and social worker Masood Ansari, the NGO Rising Voice Foundation and advocate Devendra Mishra, claims that provisions of the ordinance are “illegal, null, void, unreasonable and arbitrary.”

“The very construction of the ordinance shows that it selectively targets men from the Muslim community. The provisions of the ordinance are violating the fundamental rights of Muslim men,” the petitioners’lawyer, Tanveer Nizam, said.

The petition has sought an interim stay on those sections of the ordinance, which criminalises the act of pronouncing talaq by a Muslim husband.

The plea is likely to come up for hearing before a division bench on September 28. The proposed law would only be applicable to instant triple talaq or ‘talaq-e-biddat’ and it would give the victim the right to approach a magistrate and seek “subsistence allowance” for herself and minor children. A woman can also seek custody of her minor children from the magistrate, who will take a final call on the issue.