[10] On 30 July 2019, the Parliament of India declared the practice of Triple Talaq illegal and unconstitutional and made it a punishable act from 1 August 2019.
[14] Some BJP commentators have suggested that the banning of triple talaq opens the door to challenging more Muslim marital practices, including polygamy.
It stipulates that instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) in any form – spoken, written, or by electronic means such as email or SMS – is illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband.
The pronouncement could be oral or written, or, in recent times, delivered by electronic means such as telephone, SMS, email or social media.
[26][27][page needed] The Supreme Court described it as "manifestly arbitrary" and said that it allows a man to "break down [a] marriage whimsically and capriciously".
Talaq pronounced thrice simultaneously from Muhammad to the first two years of Umar's reign as caliph was only considered as a single divorce according to Sahih Muslim.
Triple talaq, in Islamic law, is based upon the belief that the husband has the right to reject or dismiss his wife with good grounds.
The ulama of Hanafi Sunnis considered this form of divorce binding, provided the pronouncement was made in front of Muslim witnesses and later confirmed by a sharia court.
[39] Changing social conditions around the world have led to increasing dissatisfaction with traditional Islamic law of divorce since the early 20th century and various reforms have been undertaken in different countries.
[40] Contrary to practices adopted in most Muslim-majority countries, Muslim couples in India are not required to register their marriage with civil authorities.
[41] Owing to these historical factors, the checks that have been placed on the husband's unilateral right of divorce by governments of other countries and the prohibition of triple talaq were not implemented in India.
[45] On 13 May 2017, during the hearings before its final judgment, the Supreme Court described instant triple talaq as the "worst form of marriage dissolution".
[5][46] On 8 December 2016, the Allahabad High Court observed in a ruling that the practice of instant triple talaq was unconstitutional and violated the rights of Muslim women.
[47][48] In March 2017, over 1 million Indian Muslims, a majority of whom were women, signed a petition to end instant triple talaq.
[50] On 10 May 2017, senior cleric Maulana Syed Shahabuddin Salafi Firdausi denounced triple talaq and nikah halala, calling them un-Islamic practices and instruments to oppress women.
The AIMPLB's lawyer Kapil Sibal had said that though instant talaq can be thought of as a sin by some, but that "setting the validity of customs and practices of a community is a slippery slope".
[60] Kapil Sibal cited Article 371A to state that even the Constitution does intend to protect matters of practice, tradition and customs of communities.
It warned that those who divorce for reasons not prescribed under shariat will be socially boycotted, in addition to calling for boycott of those who use triple talaq recklessly and without justification.
[66] Opining on this, Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board of Amnesty International in India, said Muslims are the only communities for whom divorce has been criminalized.
[75][76] According to The Economist, "Constitutional experts said [the judges] legal reasoning fell short of upholding personal rights over religious laws", whilst noting "The judgment did not ban other forms of Muslim divorce that favour men, only the instant kind.
"[53] The Government formulated a bill and introduced it in the Parliament after 100 cases of instant triple talaq in the country since the Supreme Court judgement in August 2017.
[78] The bill was planned to make instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form — spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband.