Breaking: Supreme Court To Hear Benazeer Heena's Plea Against Talaq-e-Hasan This Week

The Supreme Court today agreed to list the Petition filed by journalist Benazeer Heena challenging the 'Talaq-e-Hasan' and other forms of "unilateral extra-judicial talaq" this week.

The case was mentioned by Senior Advocate Pinky Anand before the Bench of Chief Justice N. V. Ramana, Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Hima Kohli.

"She has received three Talaq. She has an 8 month old child", the Senior Advocate told the Court. "List after four days", the Bench said.

Benazeer, a journalist, had approached the Supreme Court in the first week of May this year stating that her husband has given her the first notice of Talaq through a Lawyer's notice. In her Petition, Benazeer had also sought a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for neutral and uniform grounds of divorce and procedure for all citizens.

Earlier, the Petition was mentioned by Senior Advocate Pinky Anand on May 25 stating that Benazeer has already received her second notice of Talaq. "It is about a woman being abused", the Senior Counsel told the Court.

The Bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Bela Trivedi said that there is no urgency in the matter. When the Senior Counsel insisted, the Bench said that the matter may be mentioned again the next week.

On May 30, the Benazeer was present in Court through video conference when the matter was mentioned again by Ms. Anand before the Bench headed by Justice Ajay Rastogi. The Bench declined the request and asked the Petitioner to make an application before the Registrar instead.

On June 16, the case was again mentioned by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay before the Bench of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Vikram Nath, stating that Benazeer has received the second notice and that the Talaq will become final with the third notice. The Bench agreed to list the matter.

Benazeer received her final notice of Talaq vide a Lawyer's notice dated June 20, 2022. The notice makes many allegations against her including that she had revealed to her husband that her family members including her brothers are actively involved in promoting 'Love Jihad' by alluring Hindu girls into marriage for the purpose of converting them to Islam.

Banazeer has said that the allegations about 'Love Jihad' etc. are totally false and that she will take legal action against him for making false and defamatory allegations against her and her family.

An FIR was registered in April 2022 for offences under Sections 498A, 332, 504, 506, 406 of IPC and the Dowry Prohibition Act against the then husband and his relatives on a complaint by Banazeer before the Vijay Nagar Police Station, Ghaziabad.