Triple Talaq Law: How Modi’s Government Criminalised Instant Divorce

A practice that had existed in some form for centuries became a criminal offence in India in 2019, following a legislative process that took nearly two years and multiple government ordinances to complete. This article covers what instant triple talaq was, the court ruling that preceded the ban, and what the resulting law actually does.

What Instant Triple Talaq Was

Instant triple talaq, known formally as talaq-e-biddat, was a practice under which a Muslim husband could divorce his wife by pronouncing the word “talaq” three times in a single sitting, whether spoken aloud, written down, or, in more recent years, sent electronically, immediately ending the marriage without any waiting period, reconciliation attempt, or judicial process, according to Wikipedia’s summary of the practice and the law that followed it.

The 2017 Supreme Court Ruling

In August 2017, India’s Supreme Court ruled that instant triple talaq was unconstitutional, with the court’s judgment noting that the practice had, in fact, been historically contested within Islamic jurisprudence itself for centuries, rather than being a universally settled religious requirement. The court’s ruling struck down the practice but stopped short of criminalising it directly, instead recommending that Parliament legislate on the matter.

The Legislative Journey

Turning that court ruling into an actual criminal law proved genuinely difficult. A bill was first introduced in December 2017 and passed the Lok Sabha, but stalled repeatedly in the Rajya Sabha, where the government didn’t hold a majority at the time. To keep the ban legally enforceable in the meantime, the government issued temporary ordinances in both 2018 and 2019, before the bill finally passed both houses of Parliament in July 2019 and received presidential assent on July 31, 2019.

What the Final Law Does

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 makes any pronouncement of instant triple talaq void and illegal, and makes it a criminal offence punishable by up to three years in prison along with fines. The law also provides for a subsistence allowance for the affected woman and her dependent children, with the specific amount determined by a magistrate, and confirms the woman’s right to custody of her minor children following the divorce.

Why Some Critics Say It Hasn’t Fully Worked

Despite the law’s passage, its practical effectiveness has drawn ongoing criticism. Reports since the law’s implementation have described some women who were abandoned by husbands through the banned practice as continuing to live in a kind of legal limbo, still not formally divorced under the new criminal framework but also not remarried to their husbands, described in some coverage as living as “half-divorcees.” Separately, some reports have described husbands using alternative, non-criminalised routes, including pressuring wives into consent-based divorce arrangements known as khula, to achieve a similar practical outcome to the banned instant talaq without triggering the new law’s criminal provisions.

A Law With Broad but Not Universal Support

The criminalisation of triple talaq drew support across a genuinely broad range of voices, including from women’s rights organisations and some sections of the Muslim community itself who had long campaigned against the practice, while also facing criticism from other quarters, including some legal scholars who questioned why a civil matter like divorce was addressed through criminal law with a prison sentence, a structural criticism distinct from the debate over the practice’s constitutionality that the 2017 Supreme Court case had already settled.

The Continuing Court Challenge to the Criminal Provisions

The law’s criminal provisions specifically, as opposed to the underlying ban on instant triple talaq itself, have continued to face legal challenge in the years since passage. According to the Supreme Court Observer’s coverage of the ongoing litigation, petitioners including the Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema have challenged the criminalisation aspect of the law directly, with the case requiring the government to submit details of how many cases have actually been registered under the Act since 2019, part of an effort by the court to assess the criminal provision’s real-world application before ruling on its constitutionality.

Comparing India’s Approach to Other Muslim-Majority Countries

It’s worth noting for context that several Muslim-majority countries have themselves restricted or banned instant triple talaq through their own legal systems over the preceding century, including through reforms in Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, meaning India’s 2019 law, while distinctive in criminalising the practice with a prison sentence specifically, was not unprecedented globally in restricting the practice itself, a point sometimes raised by supporters of the law to counter the argument that the reform singled out Indian Muslims uniquely.

Bottom Line

The 2019 triple talaq law converted a Supreme Court ruling against instant triple talaq into an actual criminal offence, following a legislative process that required two temporary ordinances to bridge the delay in Parliament. The law has real, documented backing from long-standing campaigners against the practice, alongside genuine, ongoing criticism about implementation gaps and the underlying question of criminalising what is, in most other respects, treated as a civil family matter.

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Abhyudaya Verma