Supreme Court seeks response from Centre on plea of AIMPLB challenging Triple Talaq Act
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from the Centre on a plea of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) challenging the law which criminalises instant triple talaq.
A bench headed by Justice N V Ramana issued notice and tagged the plea of AIMPLB with other pending matters challenging the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 which makes talaq-e-biddat or any other similar form of talaq having effect of instantaneous and irrevocable divorce pronounced by a Muslim husband void and illegal.
The bench, while hearing a petition filed by Seerath un-Nabi Academy, was annoyed with the number of writ petitions being filed by various individuals and organisations and said there are over 20 petitions pending on the same issue of Triple Talaq.
The bench told the counsel appearing for the Academy, "How many writ petitions will be filed on the same issue. In every case the notification comes and you all come with PILs. There are over 20 petitions pending on Triple Talaq. Should we tag 100 petitions and keep on hearing them for 100 years. We cannot hear 100 petitions on the same issue".
The Act makes it illegal to pronounce talaq three times in spoken, written or through SMS or WhatsApp or any other electronic chat in one sitting.
Any Muslim husband who pronounces the illegal form of talaq upon his wife is to be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, and also be liable to fine, it says.
The plea by AIMPLB and Kamal Faruqui has challenged the Constitutional validity of the Act on grounds that it is manifestly arbitrary and offends Articles 14, 15, 20 and 21 of the Constitution and makes unwarranted/wrongful interference in the Muslim Personal Law as applicable to Hanafi Muslims.
"The impugned Act is a criminal statute having adverse impact on the life and personal liberty of those on whom penal consequences are to be visited. It is the elementary principle of law that any act or omission which is dealt with penal consequences should be defined with accuracy and precision, the plea submitted.
"A Muslim husband whose act or omission may be visited with penal consequences must have fair notice of ingredients of act or omission that is declared criminal so that such person can organize his affairs in such a way to avoid any conflict with law," the plea of AIMPLB submitted.
Since Talaq e Biddat, pronouncement of triple Talaq in one sitting, has already been declared to be unconstitutional and its practice set aside, such utterance has no legal/civil consequence, it said.
"Consequently, despite such utterances, marriage survives. Therefore, it was totally redundant and irrational to declare statutorily the practice of Talaq e Biddat as void.
"Secondly, section 3 of the Impugned Act also suffers from internal contradiction because if any act which is declared void has no existence in the eyes of law and it is redundant and contradictory to declare non-existent act illegal. The section, therefore, suffers from manifest arbitrariness as it makes provision of law which is totally unnecessary," the plea submitted.
The apex court in August 2017 had struck down the practice of instant triple talaq. The Act was passed by Parliament on July 30.
The Supreme Court had earlier agreed to examine the validity of the newly enacted law on a batch a of petitions which sought to declare the Act as unconstitutional.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
