HC sets aside family court order upholding triple talaq

ALLAHABAD: In view of the Supreme Court decision in the Shayara Bano case, the Allahabad High Court has declared a decree of divorce, passed by a family court on the basis of triple talaq, unsustainable as per law and also set aside the same.

ALLAHABAD : In view of the Supreme Court decision in the Shayara Bano case, the Allahabad High Court has declared a decree of divorce, passed by a family court on the basis of Talaq-e-Biddat ie triple talaq, unsustainable as per law and also set aside the same.

Earlier, in March 31, 2017, the family court had passed the decree in favour of the husband and held that by pronouncing talaq thrice repeatedly, the husband Mohammad Faroor alias Farooq Khan had divorced his wife Arsey Jahan.

The Allahabad High Court bench comprising justice Arun Tandon and justice Rajiv Joshi passed the above order while allowing an appeal filed by Arsey Jahan in which she challenged the order passed by the family court.

According to the facts of the case, Farooq, who was employed in Indian Army, married Arsey in 2009.

Later, his wife had lodged an FIR of dowry harassment against him and his family members and said she was not ready to live with her husband.

Hence, on August 17, 2011, Farooq divorced his wife by pronouncing talaq thrice in presence of two witnesses, which was later communicated to Arsey by a registered letter.

Since the family members of Arsey disputed the pronouncement of triple talaq, the husband filed a case before the family court seeking therein that a declaration be issued that he had divorced Arsey Jahan.

The Bench while allowing the appeal of the wife observed, “As laid down by the Apex Court in the case of Shayara Bano and in view of the fact that the husband had claimed for a degree of divorce on the basis of Talaq-eBiddat, which has been held to be illegal by the Apex Court, the judgment and decree of the court below cannot be legally sustained and is hereby set aside.”

Shayara Bano was the first petitioner in the case that led the Supreme Court to pass a verdict declaring the practice of triple talaq unconstitutional.

Bano, 36, a native of Kashipur in Uttarakhand, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the apex court in 2016, seeking a ban on the practice of instantaneous divorce after her 14-year-marriage ended abruptly in October 2015.