‘How is this allowed in modern society?’ SC on Talaq-e-Hasan

A bench, led by Justice Surya Kant, said that the issue goes beyond individual disputes and involves “society at large,” warranting judicial scrutiny of the form of divorce.

The bench, also comprising justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh, was hearing a series of petitions, including one filed by a woman who received her third and final notice of Talaq-e-Hasan in June 2022. Her husband, she said, went ahead with the divorce after her family refused to pay additional dowry, sending notices through the post in April, May and June. The woman argued that the practice is discriminatory, arbitrary, violative of her dignity and incompatible with constitutional values.

The bench expressed strong disapproval of the manner in which some men have been executing the practice. At one point, the bench took exception to the fact that one husband had authorised his advocate, rather than himself, to issue the talaq notice, remarking that such a method, is questionable even under personal law.