India Supreme Court Hears Unusual Muslim Divorce Case

Outlook India reports that India's Supreme Court today heard arguments in a case involving a Muslim couple seeking police protection for their marriage. In 2003, Nazma Biwi's husband Sher Mohammed, while drunk, divorced her by pronouncing triple talaq. He later changed his mind and decided to live with his wife and three children. Even though the couple originally received a religious ruling that the divorce was ineffective because it was carried out under intoxication, local clerics at Bhadrak in Orissa issued a Fatwa holding that the couple was divorced and could not live together unless Nazma performed 'Nikah Halala' (marrying another man, consummating the marriage, then getting a divorce and remarrying her first husband). The couple obtained a protective order from a lower court in India in April, but claim the local government has not enforced the order. Nazma and Sher are currently living apart because of threats from the community. Orissa government counsel Shibo Shanker Mishra claims that the government has complied with the lower court order.