A solution that raises questions

Triple talaq needed to go. But the law criminalises men, while providing few safeguards for wronged wives.

The concept of Hindu marriage was discussed by legal and religious luminaries and the court was told by the likes of Lokmanya Tilak that Hindu marriage — unlike Muslim marriage which was a contract — was a sacrament.

When Rakhamabai, a 19-year-old Sutar woman from Bombay was dragged to the Colonial Court in 1884, she had very little legal recourse. When she refused to live with her husband upon puberty, he sought restitution of conjugal rights, a concept imported to Hindu law by the British. British courts and the police accepted that the husband is the lord and master of his wife. Instead of following the customary law applicable to lower-caste Hindus and getting a simple kadimod (a custom involving literal breaking of a straw signifying breaking of the marital bond) in front of the Sutar panchayat, Rakhamabai had to face criminal charges before British judges. Her trial became a major event in India and England. It was to decide the fate of Hindu marriage. The question before the court was whether Hindu women have a right to renounce a pre-puberty marriage solemnised by their guardians.