KOCHI: The Kerala High Court recently ruled in favour of a 50-year-old Muslim woman who has been seeking a divorce from her husband, who remarried and refused to perform his marital obligations with her, saying that unequal treatment of wives is a valid ground for divorce for Muslim women.
A Division Bench of Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Sophy Thomas while dealing with a petition filed by the woman seeking Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, for divorce, observed; "The refusal to cohabit and perform the marital obligations with the previous wife is tantamount to the violation of the Quranic injunctions which commands equal treatment of the wives if the husband contracts more than one marriage. In such circumstances, we have no hesitation to hold that the appellant-wife is entitled to get a decree of divorce on that ground also," Live Law reports.
"If there exists a marriage with another lady during the subsistence of the previous marriage, the burden is on the husband to prove that he had treated both wives equitably in accordance with the injunctions of Quran," the court noted.
The woman, aggrieved by an order of a family court that denied her a decree of divorce, had moved the High Court for divorce.
She married the man in 1991 and had three children with him in wedlock. During his time abroad, the respondent contracted a marriage with another lady during the subsistence of their marriage.
According to a report, the woman had petitioned for divorce back in 2019. She has been living separately from her husband since 2014. The husband claims to have been providing her support during the period.
The court further noted that the fact they were living separately for years itself shows that the first wife isn't given the same consideration. The husband also doesn't claim to have lived with the wife after 2014. Not living with the wife and failure to do his marital duties is a violation of what the Quran says. The first wife was, thus, granted a divorce by the high court.