Gujarat: Talaq not valid without reconciliation efforts, says family court

Ahmedabad: A family court in Mehsana refused to grant a divorce decree to an armyman, rejecting his suit seeking dissolution of marriage after he issued three talaq notices without making any effort towards reconciliation. Noting that reconciliation is a condition precedent in any form of talaq, the court said, "the husband cannot repudiate the marriage at his sweet will".Unable to secure a divorce decree, the man approached the Gujarat high court last week, where he and his wife agreed to explore settlement options, and their dispute was referred to the mediation centre.In this case, the armyman sought to end his 10-year marriage on the grounds of his wife's extramarital affair. He issued three talaq notices at intervals of about one-and-a-half months, a form of talaq-e-Hasan, which gained momentum particularly after the prohibition of talaq-e-bidat in 2019, first by the Supreme Court and then by Parliament, as instant triple talaq. This happened in 2021, and the husband approached the court for a decree the next year.In court, the husband relied on the wife's call record details, audio CDs, and her boyfriend's deposition to establish her extramarital relationship and justify his decision to separate. However, the court found the evidence contradictory and that the core grounds for divorce remained unproven.The family court further said that even if the notices amounted to a talaq-e-Hasan sequence, the husband failed to satisfy the essential precondition of making an effort towards reconciliation. Citing judgments of different high courts, the court said, "The stage of conciliation with the intervention of the arbiters is a condition precedent for effecting talaq either in Ahsan form or in Hasan form. The husband cannot repudiate the marriage at his sweet will. The dispute must be referred to the arbiters, and their decision is binding. An attempt at reconciliation by the two relations is an essential condition precedent to talaq. Herein this case, two arbiters from either side were not involved in resolving the dispute."After the family court rejected the divorce suit, the man appealed in the HC, expressing readiness to settle the dispute with his wife. The HC has referred the case to its mediation centre and posted further hearing of the matter for March 13.