Muslim Women Have Right To Invoke Extra-Judical Divorce: Kerala High Court

The bench overruled a 1972 ruling of the single bench of the court barring Muslim women from resorting to extra-judicial modes of dissolving marriage.

Overruling a nearly five-decade judgment, the Kerala High Court has restored the rights of Muslim women for divorce without resorting to judicial proceedings. A division bench of the high court pronounced the judgment in a bunch of cases that arose out of different proceedings before the family courts seeking varied relief. The bench overruled a 1972 ruling of the single bench of the court barring Muslim women from resorting to extra-judicial modes of dissolving marriage. Noting that the Holy Quran recognises the right to divorce equally for both men and women, the bench observed that the dilemma of Muslim women, particularly in the State of Kerala, came to the fore when the single bench in the ''KC Moyin versus Nafeesa and Others'' case negated the right of Muslim women to invoke extra-judicial divorce in the light of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939.