The Supreme Court of India has taken up a case to scrutinize a Kerala High Court judgment that affirmed Muslim women’s unilateral right to dissolve their marriages through ‘Khula’, a stipulation of Muslim Personal Law. This decision, previously heralded as a significant advancement for women’s rights within the Muslim community, is now under review following a petition by the Kerala Muslim Jamaat and an individual.
Justices AS Bopanna and Sanjay Kumar of the Supreme Court have issued notices in response to the challenge against the Kerala High Court’s verdict. The contested judgment had initially been delivered in response to an appeal concerning the annulment of a marriage under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, where the High Court upheld a Muslim wife’s absolute right to seek divorce, as endowed by the Holy Quran, irrespective of her husband’s consent.
Further solidifying its stance, the Kerala High Court elucidated that, with the exception of ‘Faskh’ (judicial dissolution of marriage), all forms of extrajudicial divorce under Section 2 of the Shariat Act are accessible to Muslim women. This interpretation was reaffirmed when a review petition against the judgment was dismissed, reinforcing the notion that a wife’s decision to seek ‘Khula’ should not be contingent upon her husband’s approval. The court underscored that such a right, enshrined in the Quran, must not be invalidated by the husband’s reluctance to consent to the divorce.
The High Court’s assertion highlighted the absence of a formal mechanism in India for recognizing a wife’s termination of marriage without her husband’s consent. It proposed that in such scenarios, ‘Khula’ could be enacted independently of the husband’s agreement.
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