Judgment

Rajendra Babu, J.—The constitutional validity of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 [hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’] is in challenge before us in these cases.

2. The facts in Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum & Ors.1, are as follows.

3. The husband appealed against the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court directing him to pay to his divorced wife Rs. 179/- per month, enhancing the paltry sum of Rs. 25 per month originally granted by the Magistrate. The parties had been married for 43 years before the ill and elderly wife had been thrown out of her husband’s residence. For about two years the husband paid maintenance to his wife at the rate of Rs.200/- per month. When these payments ceased she petitioned under Section 125 Cr.P.C. The husband immediately dissolved the marriage by pronouncing a triple talaq. He paid Rs.3000/- as deferred mahr and a further sum to cover arrears of maintenance and maintenance for the iddat period and he sought thereafter to have the petition dismissed on the ground that she had received the amount due to her on divorce under the Muslim law applicable to the parties. The important feature of the case was tha