Sanjay-Manyata resort to Shariat law to save marriage

SAVING GRACE: Manyata had earlier said that she had divorced her ex-husband through Khulla method.

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Mumbai: Muslim women have been empowered by the Shariat laws to unilaterally divorce her husband under the Khulla method, actor Sanjay Dutt and his wife Manyata's lawyer on Wednesday told the court.

The couple has been charged with adultery, bigamy and that too by concealing the previous marriage. The complainant in the case is Manyata's former husband Meraj Rehman, who claims that he has never divorced her.

Additional sessions judge S N Sardesai was hearing an application filed by the couple challenging the process issued against them by the lower court.

Manyata had earlier given a statement to the police that she was married to Meraj and had divorced him through the Khulla method before a Qazi in 2004.

The lower court had neither rejected the statement given to the police nor had ordered further inquiry.

However, Meraj's advocate had told the lower court that according to the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, the husband's consent for the divorce was necessary, which was accepted by the court and the process was issued.

The couple's lawyer Shrikant Shivde on Tuesday argued before judge Sardesai that the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act is in conjunction to the existing Shariat laws that allow the woman the right to divorce unilaterally through Khulla, which has been accepted by the Supreme Court.

The magistrate had failed to apply mind while issuing the process, Shivde argued. If Dutt was unaware of Manyata's first marriage according to the charge of bigamy by concealing the first marriage, then he could not be charged for adultery.

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