Shami's wife calls Shariat draconian practices, seeks uniform laws on divorce

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the respondents concerned regarding a plea filed by cricketer Mohammad Shami's wife, Hasin Jahan who is seeking guidelines from the apex court for "gender-neutral, religion-neutral uniform grounds of divorce and a uniform procedure of divorce for all."

Shami's wife has filed the plea through advocate Deepak Prakash. A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud has tagged this plea with other similar petitions that raise common issues.

In the plea, Shami's wife also sought the declaration of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, as void and unconstitutional for violating Articles 14, 15, 21, and 25.

She criticizes the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) as containing draconian practices that grant unrestricted powers to Muslim men to divorce Muslim women in a whimsical and arbitrary manner, without allowing any right to reconciliation or an opportunity to be heard. She argues that these practices discriminate based on sex and gender.

Furthermore, she argues that the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, of 1939, fails to protect Muslim women from Talaq-E-Hasan and other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq. Therefore, she contends that the act should be declared void and unconstitutional.

She expressed her grievance regarding the unilateral form of extra-judicial divorce known as Talaq-Ul-Hasan. She received a notice of first pronouncement of divorce under Talaq-Ul-Hasan dated July 23, 2022, from her husband.

Distressed by this, the petitioner reached out to her close ones, who also shared similar grievances where their husbands had unilaterally divorced them without any reconciliation or opportunity to be heard.

Consequently, the petitioner has approached the court to address larger issues concerning "Talaq-E-Hasan and all other forms of Unilateral Extra-Judicial Talaq" that are still practised under the Muslim Personal Laws (Shariat) through The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937.

Of particular concern is Talaq-E-Hassan, also known as Talaq-Ul-Hassan, which is being grossly abused by Muslim men. Under this form of Talaq, a Muslim man can make three pronouncements of divorce over a period of three consecutive months, after which the marriage is dissolved without giving the Muslim woman an opportunity to be heard.