Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that a private religious body functioning as a Sharia court does not have the status or authority of a legally established court to grant a divorce.
The court declared void an order passed by a Sharia court in Raipur, which had declared a woman divorced from her husband, holding that such private religious institutions may offer religious opinions but cannot judicially determine marital rights or dissolve a marriage through binding orders.
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The case concerns 38-year-old Nirosh Abbasi, whose first husband died in 2015, following which she married Mohammad Abid Khan in 2022.
A dispute subsequently arose between the couple over the adjustment of the children to their new family. According to Abbasi, her husband thereafter initiated divorce proceedings.
She said her husband gave triple talaq through communications sent on August 31, September 30 and October 30, 2021.
Abbasi, meanwhile, accused her husband and in-laws of harassment, cruelty and abuse. Counselling also failed to resolve the dispute.
She lodged a complaint on October 7, 2021 and an FIR was registered on November 1.
Amid the dispute, the Raipur Sharia court issued an order on January 18, 2022, declaring Abbasi divorced from her husband.
When the matter came before the High Court, Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad declared the Sharia body’s order void.
The court held that private institutions such as Darul Qaza, which issue fatwas or religious opinions, are not legally constituted courts.
Such bodies may express religious views, the court held, but their opinions cannot compulsorily alter a person’s legal rights, marital status or obligations.
The High Court, however, did not decide the constitutional validity of a divorce in the case.
Instead, it confined its ruling to the authority of the private religious body, making clear that the legal determination of divorce and marital rights can only be made through a competent judicial or legislative process.
– Ends
(Inputs by Manish Sharan)
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
