LI NETWORK
Supreme Court making clarification under Triple talaq law said, offence under the triple talaq law can only be committed by a Muslim man, and his mother cannot be accused of it, the Supreme Court has ruled while granting anticipatory bail to a woman from Kerala.
Supreme Court said,“This is supported by the Statement of Objects and Reasons accompanying the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2019…”, which was “to give effect to the ruling of this court in Shayara Bano v Union of India [(2017) 9 SCC 1], and to liberate Muslim women from the customary practice of talaq-e-biddat (divorce by triple talaq) by Muslim men”.
“Thus, on a preliminary analysis, it is clear that the appellant as the mother-in-law of the second respondent cannot be accused of the offence of pronouncement of triple talaq under the Act as the offence can only be committed by a Muslim man,”.
Supreme Court held that there was no bar on anticipatory bail under the Act provided the substantive conditions in Section 7(c) are met. These conditions are that the court must first hear the married Muslim woman who has made the complaint and must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for granting bail to such person.
The bench said “it would be at the discretion of the court to grant ad-interim relief to the accused during the pendency of the anticipatory bail application, having issued notice to the married Muslim woman”.