NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to file before it the report of a committee which was constituted earlier to look into the aspects of personal laws such as triple talaq and custody prevalent in various religious minority communities, including that of Muslims.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit asked Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, to file within six weeks the panel’s report which had been given to the Ministry of Women and Child Development last year.
The report, submitted in 2015 to the Ministry, was titled “Women and the law: An assessment of family laws with focus on laws relating to marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and succession.” The panel had recommended a ban on various practices that are purportedly Islamic but require reform, including the practice of talaq-e-bidat and polygamy.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the registry to make available within six weeks the copy of judicial records of a petition on the issue.
The court last year took suo motu cognisance of issues relating to the quest for equality of Muslim women and had asked the government to reply to the plea of one Shayara Bano, challenging the constitutionality of Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq and nikah halala.The bench allowed the All India Muslim Personal Law Board to become a party in the case relating to personal law.
The court had sought the Centre’s response on Bano’s plea challenging constitutionality of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 in so far as it seeks to validate polygamy, triple talaq and nikah halala.