Journalist Benazeer Heena, who was brutally tortured by her husband & family, receives third Talaq under Talaq-E-Hasan

Ghaziabad, June 24: Benazeer Heena, a journalist has been fighting for justice for the last few months and has been the victim of Talaq-E-Hasan. This came after she has been facing a horrifying practice called "Talaq-E-Hasan" as per Muslim Personal Law in which a man can divorce his wife by pronouncing "talaq" once a month for three months. Benazeer Heena received the first notice on April 19 and the second one on May 19. Now, she has received the third talaq notice from her husband on June 20.

 

 

"You are hereby informed that my client (Yusuf Naqi, her husband) was constrained to and has pronounced the Third and Final Talaq upon you, also, in addition, the same is also being communicated to you by way of this present notice. Thus severing all his matrimonial relations with you by way of legally valid procedure of divorce," the notice read. Along with this kind of "Talaq", her husband has also sent her Rs 15,000 and Rs 2,000 for her son through UPI. It seems like she and her son are being priced under this Muslim law. 

 

A petition was also filed by her in Supreme Court. Senior Advocate Pinky Anand had appeared for her and called for an urgent hearing of the plea challenging the practice of Talaq-E-Hasan after two notices were to Benazeer Heena. However, the apex court had declined and asked Anand to approach the mentioning Registrar. "Make a request to the Registrar and if he does not listen then come to us," said the bench had said.

 

Notably, the petition was filed in the top court seeking to declare that Talaq-E-Hasan and all other forms of Unilateral Extra-Judicial Talaq as unconstitutional and sought to issue direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for Gender Neutral Religion Neutral Uniform Grounds of Divorce and Uniform Procedure of Divorce for all.

In Talaq-E-Hasan, talaq is pronounced once a month, over a period of three months and if cohabitation does not resume during this period, the divorce gets formalized after the third utterance in the third month. However, if cohabitation resumes after the first or second utterance of talaq, the parties are assumed to have reconciled. The first and second utterances of talaq are deemed invalid.

 

According to the reports, Benazeer Heena was married to a man named Yusuf Naqi as per Muslim rites and has a male child from wedlock. The petitioner claimed that her parents were compelled to give dowry and later she was brutally tortured for not getting a big dowry. Her husband and his family members tortured her physically-mentally not only after the marriage but also during the pregnancy which made her seriously ill.

 

When her father refused to give dowry then her husband Yusuf Naqi gave her Unilateral Extra-Judicial Talaq-E-Hasan through a lawyer, which is totally against Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 and UN Conventions, the petitioner's lawyer said. She has also sought direction to direct and declare Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 as void and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, in so far as it validates the practice of "Talaq-E-Hasan and other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq".

 

It also sought to declare the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, is void and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, and 25 in so far as it fails to secure for Muslim women the protection from "Talaq-E-Hasan and other forms of unilateral extra-judicial talaq".