The Supreme Court on Monday said that its priority is to give relief to two women petitioners, who claim to be victims of Talaq-e-Hasan, rather than deciding the constitutionality of the divorce, PTI reported.
Talaq-e-Hasan is a practice in which a Muslim man divorces his wife by uttering the word “talaq” once a month over 90 days. At the end of the third utterance, the divorce is considered granted.
The practice is different from instant triple talaq, or Talaq-e-Biddah, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2019. In this practice, a man could instantly divorce his wife by pronouncing “talaq” three times.
On Monday, a bench of Justices SK Kaul and Abhay S Oka was hearing petitions filed by journalist Benazeer Heena and Nazreen Nisha, challenging the constitutional validity of Talaq-e-Hasan.
“We thought that you wanted a remedy for yourselves,” the bench said. “Our concern is sometimes in the endeavour to raise a larger issue, what relief the parties need gets lost.”
The bench said it will send notices to the complainants’ husbands and seek responses from them, PTI reported. The constitutional validity of the divorce will be decided later, it said.
“There are two people before us, who need relief and we are concerned with that,” Justice Oka said. “We will see later what are the issues remaining.”
Senior advocate Shyam Diwan, appearing for Heena, told the court that previously her husband had refused to participate in mediation.
Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, representing Nisha, said that her husband has given her maintenance after the divorce.
The Supreme Court said it will hear the matter on October 11.
Previous SC hearing
On August 16, the Supreme Court had said that the practice of Talaq-e-Hasan is not prima facie improper.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh had said that the petition against the practice should not be used to further any agenda.
“Prima facie this [Talaq-e-Hasan] is not so improper,” Justice Kaul remarked. “Women also have an option. Khula is there.”
Khula is a form of divorce in which the wife returns her Mehr amount to the husband. Mehr is the exclusive property, goods or money given by the groom to the bride as a mark or respect.
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