SC refers petition against Talaq-e-Hasan to mediation; appoints Justice (Retd) Kurian Joseph as mediator

The Supreme Court on Wednesday referred to mediation a Muslim woman’s petition challenging the constitutional validity of Talaq-e-Hasan given by her husband.

Talaq-e-Hasan is a form of divorce under the Muslim Law entitling a Muslim man to divorce his wife by pronouncing the word 'talaq' once a month for three consecutive months.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi appointed Justice Kurian Joseph – a former top court judge — as a mediator on the plea filed by journalist Benazeer Heena.

“Keeping the complex issue and background of this case, we request Justice Kurian Joseph — a former judge of this court — to act as sole senior mediator. The parties/their counsels are directed to contact Justice Joseph on his mobile by tomorrow and fix a date for mediation," the Bench ordered.

It requested Justice Joseph to make an endeavor to resolve the dispute between the petitioner and her lawyer-husband in four weeks.

In view of its order for mediation, the Bench ordered that earlier talaqs alleged to have been given by her husband shall remain in abeyance.

In another case also, the top court stayed the operation of a talaq-e-hasan given by a Muslim man to his illiterate wife, noting that there were allegations of his obtaining her signatures on a blank paper.

"As he (husband) has not come forward to deny the allegations, we stay operation of the alleged talaq-e-hasan resorted to by him for divorcing the petitioner. Having stayed that, we direct that parties shall be deemed to be a validly married couple unless the husband comes forward and shows that valid talaq has been given,” it said, directing the SHO Concerned to find out the whereabouts of the husband and ensure his presence before it.

It also issued notice on a third petition challenging Talaq-E-Ahsan as violative of Articles 14 (right to equality), 15 (right to non-discrimination) and 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution.

The petitioner woman – who was given talaq by her husband through email, WhatsApp and registered post – has urged the top court to issue guidelines to ensure that Muslim women subjected to "unlawful talaq, retaliatory criminal proceedings and police bias" were not left without remedy.

More than eight years after declaring talaq-e-biddat (instant triple talaq) unconstitutional, the Supreme Court had on November 19, 2025, questioned the Islamic practice of talaq-e-hasan."What kind of thing is this? How are you promoting this in 2025? Whatever best religious practice we follow… Is this what you allow? Is this how the dignity of a woman can be upheld? Should a civilised society allow this kind of practice?" the Bench had asked.

The Bench had hinted at referring petitions against talaq-e-hasan to a Constitution Bench.

"Society at large is involved. Some remedial measures have to be taken. If there are gross discriminatory practices, then the court has to interfere," Justice Kant said, about a petition filed by Heena in 2022 seeking to declare the practice of talaq-e-hasan as unconstitutional for being irrational, arbitrary.

On August 22, 2017, the top court had outlawed talaq-e-biddat, calling the practice "bad in law."  By a majority of 3:2, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had declared the age-old controversial practice of instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) unconstitutional, terming it arbitrary and violative of the right to equality of Muslim women.