Supreme Court To Hear Plea Against Divorce Through Talaq-E-Hassan On July 22

On Monday, the Supreme Court decided to list a writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of Muslim divorce through the practice of Talaq-e-Hassan on July, 22. According to the practice, a man can divorce his wife by enunciating "Talaq" every month for three consecutive months. 

Senior Advocate Pinky Anand, representing the petitioner, orally mentioned the plea before a bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli.

The senior counsel submitted before the Court that the matter required to be listed urgently as the petitioner had received three notices of divorce which had now become irrevocable.

The Public Interest Litigation, filed by journalist Benazeer Heena through Advocate-on-Record Ashwani Kumar Dubey, averred that the first notice of divorce was received by her through speed post on April 19. It was further pleaded that the second and third notices were received in the subsequent months, due to which urgency to list the matter arose.

The petitioner has asserted that the practice of divorce through Talaq-e-Hassan was arbitrary and was violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.

In a similar case, the Supreme Court had, in the year 2017 vide a Constitutional bench judgment in Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017) 9 SCC 1, declared the practice of oral Muslim divorce or Talaq-e-biddat as unconstitutional.

Talaq-e-Hassan gives an undue and unilateral authority to the husband to divorce his wife through written communication of expression to divorce.