Ishrat Jahan, one of the key petitioners in the triple talaq case, has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Jahan was also felicitated by the party’s unit in West Bengal’s Howrah district on Saturday, BJP General Secretary Sayantan Basu told PTI.

Basu said the party would organise a state-level programme to felicitate Jahan, who was one of the five women to challenge the practice of triple talaq before the Supreme Court. Her husband had divorced her over the phone from Dubai in 2014 by uttering “talaq” three times.

Jahan had earlier alleged that she had been receiving threats since the Supreme Court, on August 22, 2017, had struck down the practice of instant talaq, calling it unconstitutional.

The Lok Sabha on December 28 passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, which proposes to criminalise the practice. It is now awaiting the Rajya Sabha’s approval.