Despite the outlawed (under IPC) triple talaq utterance, 27-year-old Asif Khan chose to divorce his wife using the method. Friday evening saw him annul his marriage and later also saw his wife lodged a complaint under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act.
Asif Khan, a resident of Fatehwadi was booked for assault under Indian Penal Code Section 323 (assault), cruelty against his wife under Section 498A of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act. In a written complaint lodged with the Veljapur PS, his wife recorded the ordeal on May 20 evening.
Asif’s wife stated in her complaint that the two have been married for the past seven years and have two kids. “He took to regular physical abuse and around one and a half years ago, falsely accused me of adultery. I left him and started living with my mother in Juhapura. On May 20, Asif came to my mother’s house and in front of all my relatives, he divorced me using the triple talaq.”
Significantly, 45-year-old government employee Sarfaraz Khan Bihari, was convicted earlier this month in Palanpur of Banaskantha district, for using the triple talaq. He was sentenced to a year in prison and slapped with a Rs 5,000 fine.
This was the first case of a man, in Gujarat, to be convicted under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act. Sarfaraz, a deputy engineer with the state government, was convicted by an additional senior civil judge in Palanpur on May 4, 2022.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the Centre enacted a law criminalising the instant divorce in 2019, roughly two years after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Muslim practice of divorcing a woman by pronouncing talaq thrice in an instance.
