[If the court eventually finds that the questions of privacy are valid, then this means it has permitted an ongoing expansion of the surveillance state even as it waits to set up a constitution bench. When the matter was mentioned before the Chief Justice this week, however, he failed to even give a commitment that the court will stick to the April 3 date when the matter comes up. If the Court is, as Justice Khehar says, willing to give up its summer vacation to deal with matters of crucial importance especially regarding individual rights, then Aadhaar should be at the very top of its list.]
https://scroll.in/article/833303/the-daily-fix-apex-courts-urgency-on-triple-talaq-is-welcome-it-should-treat-aadhaar-the-same-way Apex court's urgency on triple talaq is welcome. It should treat Aadhaar the same way 7 hours ago. Rohan Venkataramakrishnan The Supreme Court on Thursday decided that it would give an urgent hearing to a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Muslim practice of triple talaq, whereby a man can instantly divorce his wife by pronouncing the word “talaq” three times in a sitting. A Constitution Bench of five judges will be set up and hear the case from May 11, even though the court is set to go on its summer vacation on that day. Chief Justice JS Khehar said he is willing to sit through the vacation, even though two other constitutional cases are also slated for hearing then. The decision to take up the case urgently is welcome. Triple talaq is an anachronism and seems to clearly violate constitutional rights. As many as 22 Muslim countries or their provinces, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, have abolished triple talaq. Several organisation, including Muslim women’s groups have led the campaign to abolish triple talaq, with only the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board – an NGO that claims to represent all Muslims but is in reality is the voice of one section – defending it. Like triple talaq, the court has many other important constitution matters pending that it needs to treat with as much alacrity. If the violation of rights in interpreting personal law has prompted the court to rush into hearing this case, it ought to do the same for the Dawoodi Bohra case, the Sabarimala case and a number of other matters. Other cases regarding the ongoing violation of individual rights are also pending before the court. In December, the Supreme Court decided to refer questions about demonetisation to a constitution bench, but that hearing will now only matter for future exercises. Also pending before the court is the question of Aadhaar, India’s unique identity project that has been challenged on questions of privacy among other things. In this case in particular, time is of the essence. The government has expanded the project and forced adoption of Aadhaar across much of the population even though its very constitutionality is in question, and will likely present the project as “too big to fail”, telling the court that since it already exists it cannot be struck down. ***If the court eventually finds that the questions of privacy are valid, then this means it has permitted an ongoing expansion of the surveillance state even as it waits to set up a constitution bench. When the matter was mentioned before the Chief Justice this week, however, he failed to even give a commitment that the court will stick to the April 3 date when the matter comes up. If the Court is, as Justice Khehar says, willing to give up its summer vacation to deal with matters of crucial importance especially regarding individual rights, then Aadhaar should be at the very top of its list.***[Emphasis added.] -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
