Raipur: The Chhattisgarh High Court in Bilaspur has stayed a triple talaq order passed against a woman by a Sharia court operating in Raipur whose validity has also been challenged by her, the petitioner’s counsel said on Tuesday.
A single bench of Justice P Sam Koshy on Monday ordered a stay on the effect and operation of the impugned order till the next date of hearing, said the counsel for the woman petitioner, Devershi Thakur.
The woman had filed a petition in the HC challenging the validity of ‘Idara-E Shariya Islami Court’ operating in Chhattisgarh’ capital Raipur and a triple talaq order passed by it against her.
The Sharia court in January this year in a ruling granted triple talaq (a practice of instant divorce now banned under the law) to the woman (on basis of her husband’s pronouncement) following which she filed a writ petition in the HC against the order, he said.
The woman argued that no opportunity was provided by the Sharia court to present her side, which was a violation of the right to life provided under the Constitution, Thakur said.
“Through the present petition, the petitioner had challenged the existence of the ‘Idara-E Shariya Islami Court’ which is in violation of the constitution, fundamental rights to life and liberty and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986,” said Thakur.
The petitioner had complained at a women’s police station here against her husband and in-laws, but the counselling at the ‘One Stop Sakhi Centre’ (which takes up women-related issues) failed to bring about a rapprochement between the two sides. An FIR was subsequently registered at the police station against the woman’s husband and in-laws.
However, the respondent/husband proceeded with triple talaq pronouncement and the Sharia court passed its order without providing an opportunity to the woman to present her side, Thakur said.
The Centre enacted a law in 2019 which made the practice of instant triple talaq a criminal offence.
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