Marriage and the law (Muslim): India
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Conjugal rights of Muslim woman
From the archives of The Times of India 2010
HC relief for Muslim woman seeking conjugal rights
Swati Deshpande | TNN
Mumbai: It may have taken a 26-year-old woman to pave the way for other Muslim women to voice and seek their conjugal rights. Offering hope to scores of Muslim women separated or shunned by their husbands, the Bombay HC recently directed the family court to hear afresh the petition of a young woman seeking to restore her right to companionship and sexual relations within her marriage.
Zeenat Khan fought for almost a year in the family court at Bandra for her right to get back together with her husband of five years, only to have the door slammed on her face. The family court judge offered no reasoning or explanations, except that Mohammedan law does not allow a wife to make such an application.
Zeenat had married Ahmed, a Mahim resident, on December 30, 2005. Within a year, she had a baby boy. But she says Ahmed only visited her once at the hospital to ‘‘see the baby’s face’’ and then began demanding Rs 5 lakh but did not take her back home. His family too did not allow her to ‘‘enter the house.’’ She reported the ‘‘threats he gave to the police and in April 2009 finally approached the family court for a legal way out of her marital trouble. Zeenat moved the HC in February to challenge the ‘‘illegal and arbitrary order of the family court on the grounds that Islamic law scholars have written that a wife governed by Mohammedan law too is entitled to seek restitution of conjugal rights in court.’’ She relied on an authoritative book by Dr Tahir Mahmood, a former law commission member.
Marriage age: Muslims
Muslim girl can marry at 15 if she attains puberty: Delhi high court
PTI | Jun 5, 2012, 08.08PM IST
NEW DELHI: Ruling that a Muslim girl can marry as per her choice at the age of 15 years if she has attained puberty, the Delhi high court has held the marriage of a minor girl valid and allowed her to stay in her matrimonial house.
"This court notes that according to Mohammedan Law a girl can marry without the consent of her parents once she attains the age of puberty and she has the right to reside with her husband even if she is below the age of 18....," a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and S P Garg said.
Citing various Supreme Court judgements on the issue of minor Muslim girls' marriage, the bench said "In view of the above judgments, it is clear that a Muslim girl who has attained puberty i.e. 15 years can marry and such a marriage would not be a void marriage. However, she has the option of treating the marriage as voidable, at the time of her attaining the age of majority, i.e 18 years."
Accepting the 16-year-old girl's plea to allow her to stay in her matrimonial home, the bench has disposed of a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl's mother alleging that her daughter was kidnapped by a youth and forced into marriage in April last year.
The bench accepted the girl's statement she had left her parental home of her own will to marry the man of her choice and her husband should not be booked on the charge of kidnapping.
Meanwhile, to ascertain the girl's well being, the court has directed the couple and in-laws to appear before the Child Welfare Committee once in every six months till the girl attains majority.
"The Committee shall take necessary steps, including obtaining the necessary undertaking from the man(husband) in this regard. Subject to completion of these steps, the girl be allowed to live in her matrimonial home," the bench said.
The girl has been currently residing in Nirmal Chhaya, a government sponsored home for rehabilitation of poor and elderly women.
According to the habeas corpus petition filed by the girl's mother, after abducting the girl who had Rs 1.5 lakh on March 13, 2011, the man had telephoned her threatening to kidnap her other daughter if any legal action was taken against him.
The petitioner claimed that on March 19 last year she had also approached the Deputy Commissioner of Police and requested him to rescue her minor daughter from illegal detention.
As per the petition, on April 14, 2011 an FIR was registered with Gokalpuri police station in northeast Delhi alleging that the man had kidnapped her daughter.
The mother said police had not taken any action, forcing her to approach the high court.
During the hearing of her plea, the court had issued notice to police and subsequently police had produced the girl saying she had voluntarily gone with the man and married him.
Since then they have been staying as husband and wife, the police told the court.
On April 18, 2012 the girl had also told the court that she did not wish to go back to her parents and wanted to stay with her husband.
Meanwhile, she was kept in Nirmal Chhaya after her production before the Child Welfare Committee, which has stated that the girl was 15 years, 10 months and 23 days.
Marriage annulment: Wilful denial of sex, including on first night
Denying sex to spouse on first night ground for marriage annulment: Delhi high court
PTI | Mar 24, 2012, 08.24PM IST
NEW DELHI: Wilful denial of sex, including that on the first night after wedding, by either of the spouse amounts to cruelty and can be a ground for dissolution of the marriage, the Delhi high court has ruled.
Justice Kailash Gambhir gave the verdict, upholding the lower court's decree of divorce to a man having a "sex-starved marriage" as his wife refused to have sexual intercourse with him on the wedding night and making him long for it for the subsequent five months, left her matrimonial home.
"In the present case, the testimony of the husband that the wife was never responsive and was like a dead wood when he had sexual intercourse with her remained unrebutted.
"It is not that the husband had sex with his wife only about 10-15 times from the date of his marriage within a period of five months, but the wife's cruel act of denying sex to the husband especially on the very first night and then not to actively participate in it even for the said limited period for which no contrary suggestion was given by the wife," the court said.
It cited various Supreme Court judgements on the issue and said "it is evident that wilful denial of sexual intercourse without reasonable cause would amount to cruelty."
Referring to the apex court's observation that "sex is the foundation of marriage and marriage without sex is an anathema," Justice Gambhir said, "Marriage without sex will be an insipid relation."
