Marriage can be dissolved on grounds of shiqaq without proven cruelty: SC

The Supreme Court has ruled that a marriage can be dissolved on grounds of shiqaq, or marital discord, under a provision of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, even if cruelty is not proven. According to the residuary provision, 2(ix), of the Act, a woman can obtain a decree for the dissolution of her marriage on certain grounds.

The court's judgement was issued by a five-member bench, headed by Justice Shahid Waheed, and was based on two connected petitions filed by Zainab Bibi and Imran Naz Begum against separate orders of the Peshawar High Court. In both cases, the wives had sought dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty, but the family court found cruelty unproven. However, the court dissolved both marriages through khula, a woman's right to seek release from a marriage.

The Supreme Court's judgement stated that a marriage may be dissolved by a court, but neither spouse should be judicially deprived of a lawful right, nor judicially burdened with a stigma, without the foundation of law and evidence, as per Dawn. The court also directed that the two women did not have to return their dower, as per Dawn and Daily Times.

Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Times, Dawn - Pakistan, Dawn — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.