Explained: What Is Talaq-E-Hasan And Why There Are Talks To Abolish It

The Delhi High Court has sought a response from the Delhi Police and a Muslim man who has sent his wife 'Talaq-e-Hasan' notice after the wife appealed to the court seeking the divorce practice to be declared as unconstitutional and discriminatory.

Reuters/Representational Image

Earlier, a Supreme Court vacation bench comprising of Justices A S Bopanna and Vikram Nath took note of the propositions proposed by petitioner Benazeer Heena on the Talaq-e-Hasan¡¯ case seeking the practice to be scrapped as unconstitutional and regressive against women¡¯s fundamental and constitutional rights.

What is Talaq-e-Hasan?

Talaq-e-Hasan- a form of triple Talaq, is an extra-judicial way of divorce practiced by men in a Muslim marriage that involves pronouncing ¡®Talaq¡¯ three times in three months to seek a divorce from his wife. Thus, any Muslim man marriage can terminate his marriage if he says the word ¡®Talaq¡¯ once every month for three months in a row.

BCCL

This type of divorce must be declared when the wife is not menstruating, and there must be a one-month interval between each of the three declarations. The period of abstention is the time frame between these three consecutive talaqs. Abstinence, or 'iddat' is observed for 90 days i.e., three menstrual cycles or three lunar months. During the abstinence period, if the spouse begins cohabitating or engaging in intimate relationships, the divorce is presumed to be revoked. The purpose of instituting this type of talaq was to prevent the evil of instantaneous divorce.

Why are people against Talaq-e-Hasan?

A number of Muslim women have reported cases of physical abuse and violent threats by their in-laws on the pretext of a divorce through the triple talaq system.

BCCL

The plea is also to direct the concerned religious leaders to invalidate the talaq-e-hasan and not to force any woman to abide by the divorce practiced under the Sharia Law.

The Petitioner here has moved to the court to invalidate the first talaq notice sent by her husband as invalid and unconstitutional as it is a violation of her due rights.

What is the legal position?

In 2017, the Supreme Court pronounced the Talaq-e-Bidat unconstitutional in the case of Shayara Bano v. Union of India. In this type of divorce, the couple's marriage is dissolved when the man declares divorce three times in a single sitting. The Islamic divorce procedure known as Talaq-e-Hasan has been challenged in court in public interest litigation (PIL).

Reuters/Representational

Petitioner Benazeer Heena, filed a petition through Advocate-on-Record Ashwani Kumar Dubey to declare the Talaq-e-Hasan, the Islamic form of divorce, unconstitutional because it violates Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution. Ms Hina prayed that Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, which allows Muslims to practice unilateral divorce, be deemed void.

Ms. Heena has claimed that her husband Yousuf had unilaterally divorced her through the Talaq-e-Hasan procedure. In May of this year, the top court turned down a request for an expedited hearing on the issue.

However, a request for an urgent hearing of the case was granted on June 17 by a vacation bench. It was suggested that if no action was taken, the woman and her child would be rendered without any protection. Both the first and second talaq notices were given on April 19 and May 19 respectively.