Jaitley hails SC judgement, says ‘aberrations’ in personal laws should be rectified

New, Aug 22 (IANS) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday hailed the Supreme Court verdict on triple talaq as "progressive" and said efforts should be made to rectify "aberrations" in personal laws that infringe on constitutional guarantees.

"The Supreme Court judgment in the triple talaq case undoes the injustice to Muslim women who were victims of a unilateral termination of a matrimonial relationship," Jaitley said in tweet.

Talking to media persons later, Jaitley said many Islamic countries have rejected instant triple talaq.

"Many parts of Islamic world themselves have rejected it. And ordinarily, reform of this kind should have risen from within the community itself. There were some who were reluctant...even though many, particularly the women in the community, have shown great support for abolishing it,"he said.

He said a defaulting husband could take advantage of his own wrong and terminate the relationship with his wife. "This heaped injustice on the female and virtually left her remedy-less," he said, adding that it was being contended that this practice had become obsolete.

The Minister said that the Supreme Court has stepped in at the right time.

"The majority view of the Supreme Court is absolutely clear that this instant pronouncement is not fundamental to the religion itself. It is not even an essential aspect of the religion, and therefore it is discriminatory. It compromises the dignity of the women itself, and being violative of the constitutional guarantee itself is void," Jaitley said.

"I think even the minority view, which upheld this practice, certainly was conscious of the fact that there was a need for reform. That is why while upholding the practice, they injuncted that a legislation is brought about. But that is an exercise which now will have to be considered, if at all, by those in public domain," he added.

Jaitley said all sections should walk the path to progress.

"I am sure that the step that the judiciary has taken, others in India in the legislature and outside will also walk on the same progressive path, and ensure that personal laws in India continue to remain progressive and all such aberrations in the law which infringe constitutional guarantee are rectified," he said.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held triple talaq being practised by the Muslim community as "unconstitutional", "arbitrary" and "not part of Islam".

A five judge constitutional bench by a 3:2 majority judgement said there is no constitutional protection for triple talaq.

Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Fali Nariman and Uday Umesh Lalit held that triple talaq is not integral to Islam, is banned in law and lacks approval of the Shariat.

However, Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice S. Abdul Nazir, in a minority judgment, said triple talaq is integral to Islamic practices and enjoys constitutional protection.