Plea in HC claims Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act discriminates against women

A PIL has been moved in the Delhi High Court challenging a provision of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act claiming it discriminates against Muslim women as it allegedly permits dissolution of a marriage if the husband renounces Islam or converts to another faith, but not if the wife does so.

A PIL has been moved in the Delhi High Court challenging a provision of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act claiming it discriminates against Muslim women as it allegedly permits the dissolution of a marriage if the husband renounces Islam or converts to another faith, but not if the wife does so. The petition filed by Delhi residents Tuba Kamil and Hari Mudgil has challenged Section 4 of the Act contending that the wife cannot claim a decree of divorce on the ground of her conversion or renouncing of faith, rather she has to first establish any of the nine grounds given under Section 2 of Act. The plea came up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan which said prior to going into the merits of the matter it would like to verify the bonafides of the second petitioner, Hari Mudgil, as in another petition by him before the same bench his name was Hari Kishan.

The second petitioner, during the hearing of the other petition, had also told the court that he was an armed forces personnel. In the instant petition, the bench posed a number of queries regarding his two names, his army identity card and whether he was on leave presently. During the hearing itself, the man showed the bench his army identity card and said he was on leave from July 27 to August 26.

He also said that his official name was Hari Kishan and the mention of Hari Mudgil was a "clerical error". The bench, however, did not accept the oral submissions and asked him to place everything, including a copy of his identity card, on record by way of an affidavit and listed the matter on September 15.

The court said it will hear the matter only after his bonafides are verified. While contending that the law on the dissolution of marriage for Muslims was discriminatory, the petition said the wife first has to establish any of the nine grounds given under Section 2 of Act. The nine grounds in section 2 of the Act include -- whereabouts of the husband not known for a period of four years, the husband has neglected or has failed to provide for wife''s maintenance for a period of two years, the husband has been sentenced to imprisonment for a period of seven years or upwards and the husband has failed to perform, without reasonable cause, his marital obligations for a period of three years. "But for a husband, there is no such requirement to obtain a decree," the petition has said.

It has further stated that the provision to get a decree of divorce, after renouncing Islam, by establishing one of the nine grounds given in section 2 of the Act is not available to a woman who had converted to Islam from another faith and then re-embraces her former religion. This leads to discrimination between women who were born into the religion of Islam and those who converted to it, the petition has contended.

The petitioners have sought quashing of section 4 of the Act claiming that it is "unconstitutional".