Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday reserved order on the anticipatory bail application (ABA) filed by a man booked for divorcing his wife in violation of the new triple talaq ordinance, which prohibits the practice of instant talaq.
The husband has claimed that he had sent two notices earlier, which the wife didn’t receive and hence they didn’t violate the law. The wife, on the other hand, has claimed that the husband had manipulated the dates of notices to suit the law and it was, indeed, triple talaq.
The Manor police has registered a case against Vasai resident Intekhab Alam Munshi under sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (a) (c) of The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights of Marriage) ordinance, 2018 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code after receiving complaint from Munshi’s 40-year-old wife claiming that her husband divorced her in violation of the ordinance.
The couple got married in December 1998 and have three children. According to the complaint, the woman on September 22 this year received a notice of talaq (divorce). It was mentioned in the notice that two notices had already been served to her and hence this is ‘Talaq-e-Ahsan’, which is legal. However, according to the complainant, she has not received any notice before this one and hence it was Talaq-e-Biddat, which is prohibited as per the law and is in breach of the provision of the ordinance.
The husband’s lawyer Vincent D’Silva contended before Justice P.D. Naik that first notice was issued to the complainant on July 21 and later again same notice was sent on July 26. Similarly, on August 21 and August 26, copies of the second notice were issued, but — he claimed — the wife deliberately didn’t accept them.
According to Mr D’Si-lva, the appropriate procedure was followed, but the woman accepted the t-hird notice and a filed complaint on the basis of it. On the other hand, advocate Amin Solkar, on behalf of the complain-ant, as an intervener, alleged that the dates of notices mentioned by the accused have been manipulated in order to show that talaq was given as per the law.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Naik said he would pronounce an order on this application on Tuesday.
