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Publication: News18.com
Date: December 15, 2014
URL: http://www.news18.com/news/uttar-pradesh/woman-refuses-to-accept-talaq-from-husband-moves-court-657509.html

#Bareilly #Uttar Pradesh A 28-year-old Muslim woman, divorced by her husband in 2012 as per Islamic traditions, has refused to accept talaq and instead moved court seeking its annulment.

Sensing trouble, clerics from Barelvi school of Islamic thought have scampered to her husband's support, maintaining that a reunion of the couple is possible as per Islamic law only if the woman remarries and the second husband hands her a talaq and her first husband agrees to marry her again.

The case brings alive memories of the famous Shah Bano case of 1985, in which a bench of the Supreme Court had upheld the 62-year-old's right to claim maintenance from her husband under Section 125 of CrPC. Under pressure from the orthodox sections of the society, the then Congress government had to quickly pass a law (the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986), which diluted the landmark judgment.

In the present case, the woman, Qamar Jahan, a resident of Bhuta Gautiya village in Faridpur block, was married to one Arman, a resident of Shahjahanpur, in 2010. As the two could not get along, the man separated from her by saying talaq three times in 2012. Later, he also handed her the official confirmation of his decision in a signed affidavit.

However, Jahan refused to accept this as formal divorce and conveyed her decision several times over phone to her husband and father-in-law. She also filed a case at the family court in Bareilly, seeking annulment of the divorce.

Hearing her case, the court issued notices to her husband and father-in-law in November this year, said superintendent of police (city) Rajeev Malhotra.

The police official also added the two sides were also involved in a faceoff outside the court, following which Kotwali police lodged a complaint against the woman's family for attacking her husband and father-in-law.

Malhotra said that even as the matter is pending in the court, clerics have come out in support of the husband.

Questioning the woman's refusal to accept talaq, national general secretary, Tahrik-e-Tahaffuz-e-Sunniyat (TTS), Mufti Mohd Saleem Noori said, "It is customary on the part of wife to accept talaq given by the husband as per the tenets of Shariat. However, the couple can reunite if the woman is married to another man who in turn hands her a talaq and her previous husband agrees to marry her again. Otherwise, she is bound to abide by the decision of the husband. It is a matter governed by provisions in the Muslim Personal Law."

Senior lawyer and well-known scholar of Islamic thought, KM Khan, said, "As per the holy book, it is mandatory on the part of the husband to give verbal talaq to his wife three times within a span of three months after which it is formally notified. This is done to leave scope for a patch-up between the two during this period. Giving talaq by uttering the word three times is only customary and it is nowhere in usage, except India. Even in Islamic countries, like Pakistan, this is not the standard procedure to formalize a divorce."