Divorced Muslim women also have the right to get alimony: Allahabad High Court

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, while giving an important judgment in favor of Muslim women, has said that divorced Muslim women also have the right to get maintenance from their husbands under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and they are entitled to maintenance after the period of iddat. can also get it.

The court also made it clear in its decision that divorced women have this right only until they remarry

A bench of Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar gave this order on the criminal revision petition of the petitioner Razia. In this revision petition filed in the year 2008, the order of a sessions court in Pratapgarh was challenged. A Muslim woman had approached the trial court seeking maintenance for herself and her two minor children. The trial court had ordered his maintenance from the date of passing the order on January 23, 2007.

Thereafter, the husband challenged the order of the trial court by filing a revision petition before the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ), Pratapgarh. The sessions court, while reversing the lower court’s decision, said that after the introduction of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, the case of the petitioner and her husband would be subject to this Act.

The sessions court said that only under sections 3 and 4 of the said Act, a Muslim divorced wife is entitled to maintenance. Section 125 of CrPC does not apply in such cases. The bench set aside the decision of the sessions court and said that after the judgment given by the Supreme Court in the Shabana Bano case, it has been decided that a Muslim divorced woman is entitled to maintenance under section 125 even after the period of iddat. , until she marries another. ‘Iddat’ means to stay away from the next-born (who is likely to be married) for a certain period after the death or divorce of the woman’s husband. According to Islamic law, a divorced woman has to wait for about three months during the ‘iddat’ period before remarrying.