Kerala high court. (File photo)
KOCHI: Right of a Muslim woman to unilaterally divorce her husband outside of court, called khula, is legally valid, the Kerala high court has held.
A division bench comprising justices A Muhamed Mustaque and CS Dias equated khula to the right of talaq available to Muslim men and declared a 1972 judgment (KC Moyin Vs. Nafeesa and Others) that denied such right to a Muslim women as not good law.
Through the 1972 judgment, a single bench had held that a Muslim woman cannot divorce her husband outside of court, as Muslim men are allowed to do through Talaq, and that she has to necessarily move for divorce through a court as Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act of 1939 (DMMA) requires so.