MADURAI: Shariat Council is a private organisation and not a court, Madurai bench of Madras HC ruled recently while hearing a civil revision petition regarding the triple talaq of a Muslim doctor couple who married in 2010.
One of the focal points of the case is Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, the Shariat Council, issuing a divorce certificate to the husband in 2017. Though it can help resolve family and financial issues, it can’t issue divorce certificates or enforce penalties.
Justice G R Swaminathan criticised the divorce certificate, describing it as “shocking”.
He said the council had accepted the husband’s petition for triple talaq and attempted to mediate, but blamed the wife for not cooperating.
“Only courts duly constituted by the state can deliver judgments. Shariat Council is a private body and not a court,” the judge reiterated, dismissing the husband’s revision petition. “So long as such a declaration has not been obtained from the jurisdictional court, the marriage is deemed to subsist.”
In 2018, the wife disputed the divorce and filed a petition under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act before a Tirunelveli judicial magistrate court. She also asserted that the third talaq was not served on her, meaning the marriage was still valid. The husband married a second time that year.
In 2021, the magistrate ruled in favour of the first wife, directing the husband to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation for domestic violence and Rs 25,000 a month for the maintenance of their minor child. Later, a sessions court dismissed the husband’s appeal against this decision, prompting him to file the current revision petition before the HC.
During the hearing, Justice Swaminathan said the husband claimed to have properly pronounced talaq three times. “If it is disputed by the wife, the question arises if the marriage has been validly dissolved. So long as such a declaration has not been obtained from the jurisdictional court, the marriage is deemed to subsist,” the judge observed.
The HC said the husband must go to the court and obtain a declaration. “The issue cannot be left to the unilateral determination of the husband since that would amount to the husband becoming a judge of his own cause,” the judge observed.
The judge said the act of bigamy caused “considerable emotional distress and pain” to the wife, amounting to cruelty.
“If a Hindu, Christian, Parsi, or Jewish husband contracts a second marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage, it would constitute cruelty besides being an offence of bigamy. It would obviously be considered an act of domestic violence entitling the wife to claim compensation under Section 12 of the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Will this proposition apply in the case of Muslims? The answer is yes,” Justice Swaminathan said.
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