New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre on a plea by a Muslim doctor to declare all forms of unilateral and extra-judicial talaq including “Talaq-e-Kinaya and Talaq-e-Bain” as unconstitutional.
Petitioner Dr Syeda Ambreen of Karnataka’s Kalaburgi was represented by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
A bench comprising Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and J.B. Pardiwala issued notice to the Centre, including the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women.
The plea argued that these practices were arbitrary, irrational, and contrary to fundamental rights to equality.
The plea said: “Petitioner’s parents were compelled to give dowry and later she was tortured for not getting big dowry. Petitioner’s husband and his family members tortured her physically-mentally. When petitioner’s father refused to give dowry then her husband gave her unilateral extra-judicial Talaq i.e., Talaq-E-Kinaya/Talaq-E-Bain through a Kazi and lawyer, which is totally against Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25.”
Talaq-e-Kinaya is divorce through vague words that do not directly mean divorce. Talaq-e-Bain is an irrevocable divorce, and unlike the practice of triple talaq, requires the husband to utter ‘divorce’ just once.
The petitioner has completed MS in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from Karnataka. She claimed she was given ‘kinaya’ in January, 2022 without any process of mediation or conciliation.
The apex court tagged her plea with other similar petitions scheduled to come up for hearing on Tuesday.
The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for “gender neutral and religion neutral uniform grounds of divorce and uniform procedure of divorce for all citizens”.
The plea contended that the petitioner suffered mental, verbal, physical and financial abuse and harassment from her doctor husband and his family for dowry. “It is accordingly submitted that a ban on unilateral extra-judicial Talaq has long been the need of the hour in the interest of public order and health. It is further submitted that this court has already expressed the view that triple talaq is not an integral part of religion and Article 25 merely protects religious faith, but not practices which may run counter to public order, morality or health,” added the plea.
