Editor,
The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council is certainly a blessing to the Khasi race if this Council is administered by the Khasi elected members who know the Constitution of India, the amendments to the Constitution and the various provisions enshrined in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and how to apply the laws appropriately according to the times and circumstances. Unfortunately, many of those elected MDCs are not blessed with such wide knowledge. Once they are at the helms of affairs they are supposed to do quite a lot of homework and know the various applicability of the provisions of the Schedule and how to legislate appropriately. Taking the help of legal experts is also correct but it should be the last resort for it involves a lot of expenditure.
What has happened during the last four years has not rendered any benefit and utility to the Khasi race. Instead the Councillors spent their time in mud slinging, political rivalry, political one-upmanship etc., The Synjuk ki Rangbah Shnong (KSKRS) was also taken for a ride by the KHADC authorities at Polo Rally and the KSKRS was sunk and dissolved (subsumed) into ka Synjuk ki Nongsynshar shnong ka Bri u 7 trep (SNSBH) which resulted in nothingness. This is a sad state of affairs and a waste of the peoples’ mandate.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marwein,
Via email
Triple Talaq
Editor,
The Supreme Court observed on Friday (May 12, 2017) ,as it continued hearing into the constitutional validity of the practice of saying “talaq” thrice that divorcing one’s wife by resorting to the stated practice is the “worst and undesirable form” of marriage dissolution among Muslims.But taking a hard-line religious stand the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB ), while hearing the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of “triple talaq” in the Supreme Court told the Apex Court that if triple talaq mode of divorce was declared illegal, it would amount to disregarding Allah’s directions and rewriting of the Holy Quran to force Muslims into committing sin.
Stressing that personal law provisions enjoyed sanctity under the Constitution’s Article 25 (right to profess and practice a religion of choice), the AIMPLB said, “If such casual denunciation of the verses of the holy book is permitted, then soon Islam would cease to exist. Though triple talaq in one sitting is an unusual mode of divorce in Islam, it cannot be declared to be invalid in the light of the direct verses of Holy Quran and categorical command of the Messenger of Allah.”
The Apex Court is looking into whether triple talaq is an essential part of Islam. The Court is hearing a bunch of petitions, some of them from Muslim women who were divorced over WhatsApp,through telephone call or a couriered letter to ask the court to put an end to triple talaq. The Apex Court was also informed that many Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia have banned dissolution of marriage by pronouncing Talaq thrice and no longer allow triple talaq to dissolve marriages.
Calling for abolition of triple talaq, Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani has termed the practice as “abhorrent” as it marks a distinction on the ground of sex. Jethmalani has rightly held that it does not give women equal rights to divorce and no amount of advocacy can or will save this sinful, repugnant practice which is contrary to the constitutional provisions. He is also justified to hold that no law can allow a wife to become an ex-wife ‘at the fancy of the husband’ which is the highest kind of unconstitutional behaviour.
Does the AIMPLB accept that countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia have re- written of Quran by banning dissolution of marriage by declaring triple talaq illegal? In fact AIMPLB should take initiative for empowering their women to fit in with the modern day global scenario of socio-economic status of women and salvage fundamental rights of Muslim women being denied and tortured by the whims of their husbands in the Sub-continent. The AIMPLB should not intermingle the social rights restoration of Muslim women with misinterpretations of the scriptures of Quran to deprive women of their fundamental rights. Rather there is an opportunity for them to become a crusader for the emancipation and restoration of social rights and status of women in the secular Indian environment!
Since the practices of ‘triple talaq’, ‘nikah halala’ and ‘polygamy’ are a gross insult to womanhood and impacts on the social status and dignity of Muslim women, the AINPLB has a stellar/crusader role to play for the emancipation of the Muslim women of the country.
Yours etc.,
Samares Bandyopadhyay
Kolkata