Indore News: High Court Quashes Family Court’s Order Declaring Divorce Valid Sans Trial

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has set aside an order of the family court, Jhabua, which had declared a marriage dissolved under Muslim law without a proper trial.

The division bench comprising Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Binod Kumar Dwivedi termed the family court’s action as “shocking” and “unsustainable in law.”

The case, Irshad vs Hasmatullah Khan, involved a dispute between a wife and her husband, who had sought a declaration that their marriage, solemnised on June 6, 1976, stood dissolved. The husband had claimed to have sent a notice of divorce and later filed a suit before the family court seeking confirmation of the dissolution.

On May 2, 2023, the family court dismissed the husband’s suit under Order VII Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code, but simultaneously observed that since the wife had received information of the divorce notice through the plaint, the divorce had already come into effect. This effectively treated the marriage as dissolved.

High Court strongly criticised the family court’s approach, observing that the trial judge “took up the matter suo motu and granted relief that could only be given after framing issues and recording evidence.”

The Bench noted that the husband was “given an unjust benefit” merely because the wife appeared before the court and received the plaint.

“The order is unsustainable in law and is accordingly quashed,” the court ruled. The court also directed that the records be sent back to the lower court immediately.