Delhi High Court seeks response to woman's plea challenging constitutional validity of Talaq-e-Hasan

The Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Delhi Police and a Muslim man after his wife filed a petition challenging a Talaq-e-Hasan notice allegedly sent by him.

Notice was issued by vacation judge Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma last week.

He has directed the respondents to file their replies by August 18, when the matter will be heard by the roster bench.

Talaq-e-Hasan is the practice by which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by saying the word "talaq" once a month, for three months.

A petition is already pending before the Supreme Court, where a woman named Benazeer Heena has challenged the practice of divorce through Talaq-e-Hasan.

The plea in the Delhi High Court has been filed by a woman through Advocate Shubham Jha.

The woman claimed that she got married to a man in September 2020. She alleged that her husband’s family compelled her mother to organise a lavish marriage ceremony and demanded dowry. When her family refused to fulfil the unjustified demands of cash and expensive gifts, she was tortured physically and mentally due to which she filed a domestic violence complaint with the Delhi Commission for Women, the plea stated.

The petition said that her husband subsequently preferred the route of Talaq-e-Hasan and gave her the first notice for the same with a view to compelling her to withdraw all legal complaints against him and his family members.

Calling it an abominable practice when seen in light of the progressive times of the 21st century, the plea states,

“The Petitioner being a Muslim woman is the direct victim of the ‘unilateral extra-judicial talaq’ i.e. “Talaq-E-Hasan” as she can’t exercise this against her husband being the subject of the atrocities & cruelties but the right her husband is always there to use this unilateral extra-judicial talaq, which is the clear violation of the Article 14 which guaranteed the equality before the law to any one, without any sort of discrimination on the basis of cast, creed, religion, gender etc."

The plea further pointed out that since the Supreme Court has already declared triple talaq as illegal in the case of Shayara Bano, forms of “unilateral extra-judicial talaq” should not exist.

Therefore, the petitioner said that Talaq-E-Hasan is not only arbitrary, illegal, baseless and an abuse of law, but also goes against Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 of the Indian Constitution and United Nations Conventions.

The plea also seeks a direction to all religious groups, bodies and leaders to not force Naaz to act according to Sharia law and accept this form of divorce. Naaz has also sought police protection from these religious groups and leaders in case any force is used against her to accept Talaq-e-Hasan.

Advocates Mohan S, Shubham Jha and Aishwarya appeared for Naaz.

Advocate Rachita Garg appeared for the Delhi Police.

[Read Order]