High Court: Family Court cannot refuse to recognize Talaq-e-Hassan, important decision of High Court on Muslim matrimonial matters.

Lucknow. The Lucknow Bench of the High Court has given an important decision regarding giving judicial recognition to Talaq-e-Hassan given under Muslim Personal Law. The court has said in its decision that if there is no dispute between both the parties on the validity of divorce. If the Family Court is prima facie satisfied that the divorce has taken place in accordance with Muslim Personal Law, it cannot refuse to declare the marital status as divorced. The court said that in such cases the role of the family court is limited only to preparing a public record of marital status.

The division bench of Justice Alok Mathur and Justice Syed Qamar Hasan Rizvi has given this decision while accepting the first appeal filed by a Muslim husband. Along with this, the court canceled the order of the Family Court of Lucknow, in which the suit regarding declaration of divorce was dismissed saying that no one has challenged the divorce and the need for declaration has not been made clear.

The marriage of the plaintiffs took place on February 1, 2022.

According to the case, the marriage of the plaintiffs took place on February 1, 2022. It was said that due to marital dispute, the wife started living in her maternal home from September 2023, when efforts for reconciliation failed, the husband tried to reach a settlement through Darul Qaza. After this, according to Muslim personal law, the process of Talaq-e-Hassan was completed by sending three notices at an interval of one month.

Wife’s seal on all three notices, dowry and consent

The wife had accepted in her written statement and affidavit that she had received all the three notices, had received dower amount of Rs 1 lakh and had agreed to the divorce. The court also said in its order that an extra-judicial divorce validly done under Muslim personal law is effective in itself. However, the court also made it clear that if in future any party wishes to challenge the validity of the divorce, it will be free to do so in a competent court as per law.