Divorced Muslim woman’s right to maintenance applies even after remarriage: HC

The Bombay High Court in India has ruled that a divorced Muslim woman is entitled to maintenance from her former husband, even after she has remarried. The court stated that the intent of the law is to protect all divorced Muslim women and ensure their right to a normal life. The ruling came in response to a petition filed by a man who argued that he should not have to pay maintenance because his ex-wife had remarried. The court rejected this argument, stating that it would frustrate the purpose of the law.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday held that a divorced Muslim woman’s right to maintenance from her former husband is unconditional and applicable even after she is remarried.

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The single judge bench of justice Rajesh Patil said that though the word “remarriage” was missing from section 3(1)(a) of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act (MWPA), 1986, under which divorced Muslim women are entitled to reasonable maintenance from their former husband, the intent of the law towards protecting divorced women even after their remarriage was clear.

“The Act seeks to prevent the destitution of Muslim women and ensure their right to lead a normal life even after divorce,” said justice Patil. “Hence the legislative intent of the Act is clear. It is to protect ‘all’ divorced Muslim women and safeguard their rights. The protection referred to in the MWPA is unconditional. Nowhere does the said Act intend to limit the protection that is due to the former wife on the grounds of her remarriage,” the judge added.

The entitlement of divorced Muslim women to a reasonable and fair provision and maintenance is crystallised on the date of divorce and is not hampered by the former wife’s remarriage, the court said while dismissing the petition filed by a Chiplun resident who works in Saudi Arabia.

The appellant and his former wife got married in 2005, and their daughter was born the following year. Meanwhile, he shifted to Saudi Arabia for work and his wife stayed with his parents in Chiplun before moving in with her own parents in June 2007, also in Chiplun. On April 5, 2008, he divorced her by registered post.

Subsequently, his wife filed a plea for maintenance for herself and her daughter, invoking provisions of the MWPA, which was upheld by the magistrate court. Ordered to pay ₹4.32 lakh as maintenance to wife, he filed an appeal in the sessions court, which rejected his plea and enhanced the maintenance amount to ₹9 lakh.

The appellant then approached the high court, primarily contending that he was not liable to pay any maintenance to his ex-wife because she had remarried in the interim.

Justice Patil rejected his plea observing that if such an argument was accepted and the husband was absolved of his duty upon his ex-wife’s remarriage, then the husband would deliberately wait for his ex-wife to get remarried. “Such a condition is unfair and unacceptable and will frustrate the very essence of the said Act,” the judge stated.