All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board Approaches Supreme Court Against Extra-Judicial & Unilateral Talaq

The All-India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board has moved Supreme Court seeking against unilateral forms of divorce by Muslim husbands by pronouncement of talaq as per the personal law.

The Board seeks to declare divorce given to Muslim women without following the due procedure as null & void with retrospective effect.

The Board sought a direction from the Court to declare that divorce given to Muslim women without following the due procedure of conciliation in the presence of a witness be declared as null and void respectively. It also sought that  Talaq-e-Hasan and other forms of unilateral extra judicial talaq be declared an evil plague.

Shaista Amber, the President of the Board, stated in a press release that Talaqs are happening in the country without following proper procedures established by law. The Board stated that Talaq is being given for reasons like greed for dowry, disagreements, intolerance and running away from the responsibilities of marriage, etc. Earlier,  whenever there was a possibility of Talaq between the husband and the wife, the issues between them were mediated by the involvement of family members and elders.

According to the Board, several husbands are blatantly violating the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, which criminalized the practice of triple talaq.  Complaints are being received that husbands and in-laws, in an attempt to circumvent the 2019 Act, force the women to declare talaq.  

It cited an example of a woman from Gorakhpur who was sent Talaqnama (divorce paper) which was fake and the fatwa (legal pronouncement) did not even have a signature. Her husband did not come for the counselling sessions and married a second time. When she approached the court, the court summoned the qazi who showed the wrong fatwa and asked her to do Halala. The board stated that there are several such examples where the people are not following the proper procedure while giving Talaq and prayed the Court to grant the victim women and their children justice

The Board has also prayed to the Court to direct all lawmakers to issue guidelines having retrospective effect to ensure economic and social security for divorced Muslim women and their children. The board also sought directions to take appropriate steps to remove the prevailing anomalies of taking divorce by Talaq-e-Hasan and other unilateral forms of Talaq and make a rule that one proper process to be followed in taking divorce.

There are petitions filed by Muslim women pending in the Supreme Court which challenge the practice of Talaq-e-hasan and other forms of extra-judicial talaqs.