talaq
Under Muslim personal law, a husband of sound mind who has attained puberty may dissolve the marriage by pronouncing talaq. Talaq may be talaq-ul-sunnat (approved forms: talaq-e-ahsan and talaq-e-hasan), which are revocable during a waiting period and allow reconciliation, or talaq-ul-biddat (instant, irrevocable triple talaq), which is now void and an offence.
In Shamim Ara, the Supreme Court held that talaq must be for a reasonable cause and be preceded by attempts at reconciliation by arbiters; a bare plea in a written statement that talaq was given earlier does not prove it. The wife may also seek divorce through khula, mubarat, delegated talaq, or the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939.
Example
A mere statement in the husband's reply to the maintenance petition that he had given talaq years earlier did not dissolve the marriage.
In Indian law
- Shamim Ara v. State of U.P., 2002 INSC 416: talaq must be pronounced, for reasonable cause, after attempts at reconciliation
- Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939
See also
talaq-e-ahsan · talaq-e-hasan · talaq-e-biddat · khula
Read more in the study notes
- Talaq and the modes of dissolution of a Muslim marriage (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Article 14: equality before law and the new doctrine of arbitrariness (Constitutional Law I)
- Development of Muslim law and its schools (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Sources of Muslim law (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Muslim marriage: nature, essentials and kinds (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Polygamy, child marriage and the option of puberty (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)