The Uttar Pradesh government has approved the Centre’s draft law that makes practising instant triple talaq or talaaq-e-biddat, a “cognizable and non-bailable” offence, PTI reported on Wednesday.

“The Centre’s draft Bill on triple talaq has been endorsed by the [state] Cabinet,” Uttar Pradesh government’s spokesperson and Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh was quoted as saying. He added that Chief Minister Adityanath had chaired the meeting.

The draft, Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, provides for three years imprisonment and a fine for a Muslim man trying to divorce his wife uttering “talaq” three times. The Centre had asked the states to send their respective views on it by December 10.

Uttar Pradesh is the first state that has approved the draft. Singh said, “There have been 177 reported cases of instant talaq before the judgement, and 66 after the Supreme Court order this year...Uttar Pradesh tops the list.”

The Bill will be introduced in the Winter Session of the Parliament, which will be held from December 15 to January 5. According to the draft, a woman who has been given instant triple talaq can move the court and seek a “subsistence allowance” for herself and dependent children, as well as custody of minor children.

The proposed law would apply to instant triple talaq in “oral, written, electronic or any other form”. Any such declaration shall be “illegal and void”, the draft bill says.

The government felt the need to bring in a new legislation in the Winter Session because of repeated reports about people practising triple talaq despite the government’s advisories and the Supreme Court ban. On November 13, a woman had alleged that her husband, a professor at the Aligarh Muslim University, told her over WhatsApp that he was divorcing her.

The Supreme Court had on August 22 struck down triple talaq, calling the Islamic practice unconstitutional and in violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which provides for equality before the law.

Triple talaq is a practice by which Muslim men are allowed to instantly divorce their wives by simply pronouncing “talaq”, meaning divorce, three times.