Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939

Last updated

The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 deals with the situations in which Muslim women in India can obtain divorce. [1] Its title and content refer to The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, [2] which deals with marriage, succession and inheritance among Muslims. The 1939 act (Act No. 8 of 1939) is meant to consolidate and clarify the provisions of Muslim Law relating to suits for dissolution of marriage brought by women married under Muslim Law. The act received assent of the Governor-General on 17 March 1939. [3] In Muslim law, the wife can claim divorce under extrajudicial or judicial modes. The extrajudicial modes are Talaaq-i-tafweez and Lian. The judicial mode is by Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939. The act defines the grounds for divorce and the procedure that applies. [4] [5] An important aspect of this law is Section 4 that states "The renunciation of Islam by a married Muslim woman or her conversion to faith other than Islam shall not by itself operate to dissolve her marriage". [1]

Contents

Grounds for divorce

Under the act a woman married under Muslim Law shall be entitled to obtain a decree for the dissolution of her marriage on any one or more of the following grounds, [1]

(i) that the whereabouts of the husband have not been known for a period of four years ;

(ii) that the husband has neglected or has failed to provide for her maintenance for a period of two years ;

(iii) that the husband has been sentenced to imprisonment for a period of seven years or upwards ;

(iv) that the husband has failed to perform, without reasonable cause his marital obligations for a period of three years ; continues to be so:

(v) that the husband was impotent at the time of the marriage and (vi) that the husband has been insane for a period of two years or is suffering from leprosy or a virulent venereal disease  ;

(vii) that she, having been given in marriage by her father or other guardian before she attained the age of fifteen years, repudiated the marriage before attaining the age of eighteen years : Provided that the marriage has not been consummated  ;

(viii) that the husband treats her with cruelty that is to say,-

(ix) on any other ground which is recognized as valid for the dissolution of marriages under Muslim Law: Provided that,

See also

Related Research Articles

Divorce is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. It can be said to be a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. It is the legal process of ending a marriage.

Legal separation is a legal process by which a married couple may formalize a de facto separation while remaining legally married. A legal separation is granted in the form of a court order. In cases where children are involved, a court order of legal separation often makes child custody arrangements, specifying sole custody or shared parenting, as well as child support. Some couples obtain a legal separation as an alternative to a divorce, based on moral or religious objections to divorce.

The Uniform Civil Code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply on all citizens equally regardless of their religion. Currently, personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures. Implementation of a uniform civil code across the nation is pursued by India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party. Personal laws cover marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance. While articles 25-28 of the Indian Constitution guarantee religious freedom to Indian citizens and allow religious groups to maintain their own affairs, article 44 expects the Indian state to apply directive principles and common law for all Indian citizens while formulating national policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudud Ordinances</span> Laws in Pakistan enacted in 1979

The Hudud Ordinances are laws in Pakistan enacted in 1979 as part of the Islamization of Pakistan by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the sixth president of Pakistan. It replaced parts of the British-era Pakistan Penal Code, adding new criminal offences of adultery and fornication, and new punishments of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death. After much controversy and criticism parts of the law were extensively revised in 2006 by the Women's Protection Bill.

<i>Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum</i> Maintenance lawsuit in India

Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum [1985], commonly referred to as the Shah Bano case, was a controversial maintenance lawsuit in India, in which the Supreme Court delivered a judgment favouring maintenance given to an aggrieved divorced Muslim woman. Then the Congress government enacted a law with its most controversial aspect being the right to maintenance for the period of iddat after the divorce, and shifting the onus of maintaining her to her relatives or the Waqf Board. It was seen as discriminatory as it denied right to basic maintenance available to Muslim women under secular law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Divorce in Islam</span>

Divorce according to Islamic law can occur in a variety of forms, some initiated by a husband and some by a wife. The main categories of Islamic customary law are talaq, khulʿ and faskh. Historically, the rules of divorce were governed by sharia, as interpreted by traditional Islamic jurisprudence, though they differed depending on the legal school, and historical practices sometimes diverged from legal theory.

India since its independence in 1947 has been a secular state. The secular values were enshrined in the constitution of India. India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru is credited with the formation of the secular republic in the modern history of the country. With the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976, the Preamble to the Constitution asserted that India is a secular nation. However, the Supreme Court of India in the 1994 case S. R. Bommai v. Union of India established the fact that India was secular since the formation of the republic. The judgement established that there is separation of state and religion. It stated "In matters of State, religion has no place. Any State government which pursues nonsecular on policies or nonsecular course of action acts contrary to the constitutional mandate and renders itself amenable to action under Article 356". Furthermore, constitutionally, state-owned educational institutions are prohibited from imparting religious instructions, and Article 27 of the constitution prohibits using tax-payers money for the promotion of any religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Divorce law by country</span>

Divorce law, the legal provisions for the dissolution of marriage, varies widely across the globe, reflecting diverse legal systems and cultural norms. Most nations allow for residents to divorce under some conditions except the Philippines and the Vatican City, an ecclesiastical sovereign city-state, which has no procedure for divorce. In these two countries, laws only allow annulment of marriages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khul'</span> Islamic divorce procedure

Khulʿ (Arabic: خلع, also called khula, is a procedure based on traditional jurisprudence, that allows a Muslim woman to initiate a divorce by returning the mahr and everything she received from him during their life together, or without returning anything, as agreed by the spouses or judge's decree, depending on the circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scots family law</span>

Scots family law is the body of laws in Scotland which regulate certain aspects of adult relationships and the rights and obligations in respect of children.

The Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) is an act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1955 which was passed on 18 May. Three other important acts were also enacted as part of the Hindu Code Bills during this time: the Hindu Succession Act (1956), the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956), the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956).

South African family law is concerned with those legal rules in South Africa which pertain to familial relationships. It may be defined as "that subdivision of material private law which researches, describes and regulates the origin, contents and dissolution of all legal relationships between: (i) husband and wife ; (ii) parents, guardians and children; and (iii) relatives related through blood and affinity."

"As far as family law is concerned, we in South Africa have it all. We have every kind of family; extended families, nuclear families, one-parent families, same-sex families, and in relation to each one of these there are controversy, difficulties and cases coming before the courts or due to come before the courts. This is the result of ancient history and recent history [...]. Our families are suffused with history, as family law is suffused with history, culture, belief and personality. For researchers it's a paradise, for judges a purgatory."

Divorcein South African law refers to the termination of a marital union, the canceling of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and the dissolving of the bonds of matrimony between a married couple. Divorce is unlike annulment, which declares the marriage null and void. Divorce requires the sanction of a court in a legal process. The legal process of divorce may also involve issues of alimony, child custody, child support, distribution of property and division of debt.

Sharia means Islamic law based on Islamic concepts based from Quran and Hadith. Since the early Islamic states of the eighth and ninth centuries, Sharia always existed alongside other normative systems.

Violence against women in Pakistan, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence, is a major public health problem and a violation of women's human rights in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan mainly encounter violence by being forced into marriage, through workplace sexual harassment, domestic violence and by honour killings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triple talaq in India</span> Form of Islamic divorce

Triple talaq and talaq-e-mughallazah are now-banned means of Islamic divorce previously available to Muslims in India, especially adherents of Hanafi Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence. A Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by proclaiming three times consecutively the word talaq.

All the Muslims in India are governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. This law deals with marriage, succession, inheritance and charities among Muslims. The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 deals with the circumstances in which Muslim women can obtain divorce and rights of Muslim women who have been divorced by their husbands and to provide for related matters. These laws are not applicable in the states of Goa, where Goa civil code is applicable for all persons irrespective of religion and state of Uttarakhand. These laws are not applicable to Indians, including Muslims, who married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019</span>

The Muslim Women Act, 2019 is an Act of the Parliament of India criminalising triple talaq. In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India declared triple talaq, which enables Muslim men to instantly divorce their wives, to be unconstitutional. The minority opinion suggested the Parliament to consider appropriate legislation governing triple talaq in the Muslim community.

The Family Proceedings Act 1980 is the Act that governs divorce in New Zealand. The New Zealand Parliament has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the law of marriage and divorce.

The legislative assembly of Pakistan has enacted several measures designed to give women more power in the areas of family, inheritance, revenue, civil, and criminal laws. These measures are an attempt to safeguard women's rights to freedom of speech and expression without gender discrimination. These measures are enacted keeping in mind the principles described by the Quran.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939". indiankanoon.org. Retrieved 1 December 2017.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  2. Rooychowdhary, Arija (4 May 2016). "Shariat and Muslim Personal Law: All your questions answered". The Indian Express. Indian Express. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  3. "THE DISSOLUTION OF MUSLIM MARRIAGESACT, 1939". www.vakilno1.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. Gupta, Setu. "The Concept of Divorce under Muslim Law". www.legalservicesindia. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  5. Malik, Neha. "Muslim women's right for dissolution of marriage". www.legalservicesindia.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.