Madurai: In a recent ruling, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court clarified that the Shariat Council is a private organization and not a legally recognized court. The case in question involved a civil revision petition concerning the triple talaq of a Muslim couple, married in 2010, in which the husband obtained a divorce certificate from the Shariat Council, a branch of the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, in 2017.
Justice G.R. Swaminathan expressed strong disapproval of the council’s issuance of the divorce certificate, calling it “shocking.” He explained that while the council accepted the husband’s request for triple talaq and attempted to mediate, it ultimately placed blame on the wife for not cooperating.
“Only courts duly constituted by the state can deliver judgments,” Justice Swaminathan emphasized, dismissing the husband’s revision petition. He stated that without a formal declaration from a jurisdictional court, the marriage remains legally valid.
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