Talaq-e-Hasan

Talaq-e-Hasan

Context:

• The Delhi High Court has sought a response from Delhi Police and a Muslim man ov- er a petition filed by his wife seeking to declare a notice of ‘Talaq-e-Hasan’ sent to her as “void and unconstitutional”.

Talaq-e-Hasan

• Talaq-e-Hasan is a form of ‘triple talaq’ by which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by pronouncing ‘talaq’ at three separate intervals — the gap being least one month or one menstrual cycle.
• Justice Dinesh Kumar issued a notice to the Delhi Police on the woman’s petition to protect her from religious groups that permit and propagate such practices, and from those who are forcing her to accept Talaq-e-Hasan.
• The woman, in her plea, stated that even though she and her husband were in a relationship prior to their ‘love marriage’ in September 2020, her husband never stopped his parents from demanding dowry or expensive gifts again and again.

Domestic violence case

• She said as her husband and in-laws became more demanding, inflicting physical and mental torture. To avoid any action against him and his family, the husband took the route of Talaq-e-Hasan.

Arbitrary practice

• Talaq-e- Hasan notice is not only “arbitrary, illegal and an abuse of law” but also a unilateral extrajudicial act, which directly infringes upon Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 of the Constitution.
• The woman contended that Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, does not secure for her the protection from bigamy, which has been statutorily secured for other Indian wo- men belonging to other religions.
• Bigamous marriage has been made punishable among Christians by Christian Marriage Act, 1872, amongst Parsis by Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, and amongst Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains by Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
• “The legislature has failed to ensure the dignity and equality of women in general and Muslim women in particular, when it concerns matters of marriage, divorce and succession,” her plea said.