The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to husbands in two separate pleas filed by two different Muslim women challenging Talaq-e-Hasan. A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka listed the matter for October 11.
The court noted that in one of the petitions, the petitioner is open to exploring a settlement and hence the court impleaded the husband as a party in the matter. One of the petitioners told the court that the way Talaq is being given is like a landlord issuing an eviction notice. She also apprised the court that a third person is sending these notices to her on behalf of her husband.
The court said that first, it wants to resolve the issue first. Two separate pleas have been filed by two different Muslim women seeking direction to declare the practice of “Talaq-E-Hasan and all other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq” as unconstitutional.
The petition filed by Muslim women sought appropriate direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for “Gender Neutral Religion Neutral Uniform Grounds of Divorce & Uniform Procedure of Divorce for all citizens”. One plea sought to issue direction to declare the practice of “Talaq-E-Hasan and all other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq” as void and unconstitutional for being arbitrary, irrational and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25.
The petitioner, who is a Mumbai resident claimed herself a victim of unilateral Extra-Judicial Talaq-E-Hasan and said that she is filing this public interest litigation for the development of socially-economically downtrodden and marginalized women of the society, who are mostly humiliated by their husbands through illegal, arbitrary and unjust forms of Talaq, widely practised by the Muslim men to harass and torture their wives for one or another reason. The plea also sought to declare Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 is void and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, in so far as it validates the practice of “Talaq-E-Hasan and other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq.
The plea also sought to declare the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, is void and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, and 25 in so far as it fails to secure for Muslim women the protection from “Talaq-E-Hasan and other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq. The fresh petition also sought to direct and declare Nikah halala (tahleel marriage) void and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 of the Constitution of India; e) direct the Centre to frame guidelines for Gender Neutral Religion Neutral Uniform Grounds of Divorce & Uniform Procedure of Divorce for all.
Earlier a plea was filed in the Supreme Court by a Muslim woman seeking to declare that “Talaq-E-Hasan and all other forms of Unilateral Extra-Judicial Talaq” as unconstitutional and sought to issue direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for Gender Neutral Religion Neutral Uniform Grounds of Divorce and Uniform Procedure of Divorce for all. That petition has been filed by one Muslim woman, who claimed to be a journalist as well as a victim of Unilateral Extra-Judicial Talaq-E-Hasan.
