PRESIDENT of India Ram Nath Kovind has today, February 21, 2019, signed off the ordinance titled “Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage), Second Ordinance, 2019 (commonly known as Triple Talaq Ordinance). This is a third time, when the President has promulgated the Triple Talaq Ordinance, after it being blocked in the Rajya Sabha by the opposition parties.
Triple Talaq Ordinance makes utterance of instant Triple Talaq illegal and void, and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.
Some key features of the Triple Talaq ordinance are:
- It is applicable in whole of India but it is not extended to the State of Jammu and Kashmir
- Any pronouncement of ‘talaq’ by a Muslim husband to his wife in any manner, spoken or written, shall be void and illegal.
- Any Muslim husband who communicates the ‘talaq’ orally or in writing may face a punishment upto three years in jail. The punishment may be also extended.
- If a Muslim man pronounces ‘talaq’ to his wife, then the woman and her children are entitled to receive an allowance for subsistence. Such amount can be determined by a Judicial Magistrate of the First Class.
- A Muslim woman is entitled to the custody of her minor children even if her husband has pronounced ‘talaq’ to her.
- The offence is pronouncing instant triple talaq is cognisable if the Muslim woman on whom it is pronounced, communicates the information to a police officer.
- The offence is also compoundable, if the Muslim woman insists for the same and the Magistrates allows certain terms and conditions which he may determine.
- A person accused of this offence cannot be granted bail unless an application is filed by the accused after a hearing in the presence of the Muslim woman (on whom talaq is pronounced) is conducted and the Magistrate is satisfied about the reasonable grounds for granting bail.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal for the Triple talaq ordinance on February 19, 2019
Earlier, the President promulgated the Triple Talaq Ordinance on September 18, 2018 and thereafter, it was re-promulgated on January 12, 2019 and now the re-promulgation for the third time.
Read the Ordinance.
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