Bullet points:<p>- Indian constitution directly does not have any instant divorce.<p>- The Indian constitution provides for freedom of religion, and freedom of practice of religious traditions.<p>- The Muslim personal law board's interpretation was the traditional practice of divorce is inherent to Islam, and thus, via freedom of religion, something that muslim men could do with constitutional guarantee.<p>- This was challenged by Shayara Banu, who was thus divorced. The court was asked to rule if this practice was indeed valid.<p>- The court declared 3/2 against this being a core part of Islam, and that the practice itself is cruel, and unconstitutional.<p>For most, this is a victory of simple decency. There are worries that this should have been legislatively dealt with rather than judicially, but on-the-ground truth is that politics of appeasement would mean this option is potentially long and arduous. Right now, muslim women no longer have to worry about instant divorce thanks to this ruling.
I am a christian Tanzanian in Tanzania and i though this was a Muslim thing and not something specific to india as this article and wikipedia[1] suggests.<p>My understand as it was explained in detail by a muslim here in Tanzania is that if a Muslim man divorces his wife once or twice,he can get her back with little effort since they are still semi-married. Its called "talaka" in swahili and its a simple note a man gives a woman as he sends her to her family and she is to use it as proof that he no longer wants her.<p>But if he divorces her three times,she will have to first be married to somebody else and then divorced before he can get her back and he will have to start from zero and go through all the process of marrying her as if they were never married.<p>Therefore, a muslim man who has never divorced his wife will issue the 3 divorces at the same time ONLY if he is 100% sure he will never,ever,ever want her back and he does not want to be talked out of it.<p>The above is my understanding of the 3 divorces as its practiced here in Tanzania.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Talaq_in_India" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Talaq_in_India</a>
Misleading title, the BBC's would have been much better: "India court bans Islamic instant divorce" (though it doesn't imply that it was a supreme court decision, yet it was)
The whole subject has been a mess because of some idiotic Islamic Boards in India. Talaq is the divorce initiated by Husband while Kula is the divorce initiated by Wife. After the first time Talaq, if the Husband-wife duo wants to live again, they can live together - a married life - without officially getting married again and for them to be completely separated - which means, if they want to live a married life again, they've to officially get married - after such Talaq happening Thrice.<p>Living Together -> Talaq -> Living Together -> Talaq -> Living Together -> Talaq: Permanent Divorce.<p>But some modern idiots came up with this concept of Triple Talaq which lets the Husband tells his wife 'Talaq, Talaq, Talaq' and hence done their permanent divorce. Triple Talaq isn't Islamic and when I mean Islamic, I refer back to Quran and Hadith/Sunnah (Life of Prophet Muhammad). But Indian Muslims even clerics being dumb and ignorant not referring to Quran/Hadith, has approved this idiotic Instant Triple Talaq.<p>I wish some Indian Media had explained this difference better rather than calling ignorant Clerics words as Islamic.
Why was the existing law problematic from an equality viewpoint? Why not make anyone able to divorce on a whim, it can't get more equal than that?
Not in favor of politics here on HN, but this is good news nevertheless (I am an Indian).<p>The title is a bit misleading. The instant divorce was not a part of the Constitution, but only the Muslim Personal Law.