R.Jayasimha Babu, J.

The relief sought in the writ petition is for a declaration that Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 in so far as it seeks to recognise and validate Talaaq-ul-Biddat or Talaaq-i-Badai form of divorce as void and unconstitutional.

2. The petitioner is a Muslim woman who was aged 27 years at the time of her marriage, on 06.02.1990 to the second respondent and who on 01.05.1991 was intimated through her father that the second respondent had pronounced talaq in the presence of two witnesses in a single sitting in Talaq-ul-biddat or Talaq-i-badai form. She has stated that after her marriage to the second respondent according to the Sunni Mohammadan rites and customs and after she commenced her marital life with the second respondent, she was ill-treated in various ways and forced to undergo abortion against her wishes. She has also stated that her parents had been compelled to give dowry before the marriage and that even after that the second respondent threatened to divorce her if she did not persuade her parents to give him a scooter as an additional dowry. She has stated that she is employed as a typist in the Public Wor