NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain PILs challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre's ordinance making
triple talaq a punishable offence, leading to petitioners withdrawing their pleas.
A bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi said, "It is an ordinance which will be placed before Parliament during the coming winter session. We do not want to entertain challenges made piecemeal." With the bench on the verge of dismissing the PILs, counsel Manoj V George and Raju Ramachandran promptly requested permission to withdraw the petitions, which the court allowed .
The President gave assent to the ordinance two months ago. After a five-judge bench by a three-two majority struck down triple talaq and called it unconstitutional, the government introduced a bill making the practice of instant divorce in Islam through triple talaq a punishable offence .
But the bill ran into trouble in Rajya Sabha, where the Congress-led opposition stalled it and sought drastic changes in the draft and reference to a select committee. The bill provided maximum punishment of three-year imprisonment to the husband found guilty. It also provided for a fine and payment of subsistence allowance to the wife and children.
After the ordinance was promulgated on September 19, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that triple talaq would be a 'cognisable offence' only if the divorced wife or her close relatives registered an FIR against the husband accusing him of practising triple talaq .
Prasad had said, "The offence is compoundable as it can be compromised only at the insistence of the wife upon appropriate terms and conditions... Moreover, bail can be granted upon reasonable grounds but only after hearing the victim wife also."