Supreme Court: In a civil petition filed by cricketer Mohammed Shami’s wife, Hasin Jahan (‘petitioner’) seeking guidelines for gender and religion neutral uniform grounds and procedure for divorce for all, the three-Judge Bench comprising of Chief Justice Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala JJ., issued notice to the respondents.
While cricketer Mohammed Shami and his wife are amidst their divorce battle, aggrieved by the unilateral form of extra-judicial Talaq, Talaq-Ul-Hasan, and upon receiving notice of first pronouncement of divorce under Talaq-Ul- Hasan, the petitioner had approached the Court seeking to declare the practice of unilateral extra-judicial divorce as unconstitutional. The petitioner said that there are many Muslim wives who are subjected to the abuse of procedures followed under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, (‘Muslim Personal Law’) which provides unrestrained powers relating to divorce to Muslim wives.
The petitioner’s plea before the Court was to declare certain provisions of Muslim Personal Law as “unconstitutional” that validate the “unilateral divorces”. The petition had added that no right of reconciliation or being heard is afforded to victims of unilateral divorces and is discriminatory and arbitrary in nature based on sex and gender, thereby violative of Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The Court noted the petitioner’s grievance and issued notice to the respondent parties. The Court also tagged the present writ petition with other petitions filed for the similar concerns.
[Hasin Jahan v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 639, Order Dated: 15-05-2023]
With Inputs from Press
