Muslim women can claim maintenance: SC

New Delhi, June 8 (UNI) The Supreme Court has held that divorced Muslim women can claim maintenance from their husbands under section 125 of CrPC.

The ruling was handed down by a Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and D K Jain while setting aside the judgement of the Allahabad High Court, which had held that a Muslim woman cannot claim maintenance after the enactment of the Muslim Woman (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.

The apex court, in its judgement dated June 5, copies of which were made available today, held that 'the dismissal of the revision petition by the High Court in the manner done was clearly unsustainable. Absence of these reasons had rendered the high court's order unsustainable'.

The view expressed by the first divisional court that no Muslim woman can maintain petition under section 125 CrPC is clearly unsustainable.'' The court held ''the Muslim woman protection act applied only to divorced women. The conclusion is in view of the written statement about alleged divorce 30 years ago by utterance of words ''talaaq talaaq talaaq'', three times was sufficient in law is not sustainable.'' The appellant, Iqbal Bano, was married in 1959 and her child was born in 1966 who died in 1991. The husband who was living separately stopped coming to the wife's house and also did not pay anything for her subsistence.

Therefore, an application was filed by the wife under claiming a maintenance of Rs 500 per month.

The Judicial Magistrate, Aligarh, directed the husband to pay Rs 450 per month towards maintenance who challenged the order before the district and Session's Judge which allowed his revision and set aside the order of the magistrate. The wife's writ petition was dismissed by the High Court summarily.

The UP government supported the wife in the apex court contending that she can file a petition under 125 CrPC.

The apex court concluded by observing ''proceedings under section 125 CrPC are civil in nature. Even if the court notices that there was a divorced woman in the case in question, it was open to the judge to treat it as a petition under the act. Considering the beneficial nature of the legislation, the proceedings under section 125 CrPC and claims made under the act are tried by the same court.'' While remanding the matter back to high court for fresh consideration, the apex court directed the high court to keep in view the principles indicated above while deciding the matter.

Since the matter is pending since long, the high court will dispose of the matter within six months from the date of receipt of this order to avoid unnecessary delay. The apex court also the directed the parties to appear before the high court on July 23,2007 while requesting the Chief Justice of the High Court to list the matter before the appropriate bench.

UNI