File report on Muslim personal laws, Apex Court told Centre

The Apex Court directed the Centre to file its committee report that examined personal laws pertaining to marriage and divorce in religious minorities, including the Muslim community

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to file the report of a committee which was constituted earlier to look into the aspects of personal laws relating to marriage, divorce and custody prevalent in various religious minorities, including Muslims.

A bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit asked Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, to submit the report within six weeks in the court. The bench also asked the Ministry of Minority Affairs to file its response to the petition filed by one Shayara Bano challenging the constitutionality of Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq. 

Bano has said she was subjected to cruelty and dowry demands from her husband and in-laws and was administered drugs “that caused her memory to fade, kept her unconscious” and made her “critically ill” at which point her husband divorced her by triple talaq. 

The petitioner challenged the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, saying it fails to provide Indian Muslim women with protection from bigamy. Bano stated in her petition that the issue of gender discrimination against women under Muslim personal laws, specifically the lack of safeguards against arbitrary divorce needs to be examined by the Supreme Court.