'Mutual Verbal Consent Sufficient': Gujarat HC's Nod To Islamic Law On Dissolution Of Muslim Marriage

News18

5 days ago

The Gujarat High Court ruled that Muslim marriages can be verbally dissolved if both parties consent, and there is no need for a written document under 'mubaraat'
In a nod to Islamic law, the Gujarat High Court recently observed that a Muslim marriage can be dissolved through mutual verbal consent, or mubaraat.
Mubaraat, or mutual consent divorce, is based on mutual verbal consent and does not need a written agreement as both spouses agree to separate. This is permissible under Islamic personal law and the ruling aligns with the principles of the Quran and Hadith cited by the court.
In doing so, the court set aside a family court order that rejected the divorce plea based on the absence of a written agreement for mutual consent.
A bench of Justices AY Kogje and NS Sanjay Gowda made the observation while overturning the family court order, which stated that a written agreement was necessary in mubaraat.
'The court does not find that recording of an agreement between the parties to the nikah in any written format is essential for recording the fact of dissolution of marriage. For the purpose of mubaraat, the expression of a mutual consent to dissolution of nikah is sufficient to dissolve the nikah in itself," the bench said, as per Bar and Bench.
mubaraat nikah or a Muslim marriage does not mean that it is an essential requirement under Muslim personal law.
' Nikahnama only recognises the agreement entered into by the parties to the marriage by uttering the words qabool in presence of the witness that does not make a nikahnama or registration of a nikah part of an essential process of nikah. Similarly, there is no process by which the written agreement is an essential requirement for mubaraat," the court was quoted in its ruling.
The HC was hearing a joint appeal filed by an estranged couple, whose divorce plea was dismissed by the family court in April. The two parties married in 2021, but had been living separately for more than a year due to irreconcilable differences. They mutually agreed to dissolve the marriage and opted for mubaraat.
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