LAHORE, Jan 29: The Lahore High Court has ruled that a divorcee suckling a child was entitled to maintenance allowance from her former husband even after the expiry of Iddat.
The ruling is part of the judgment which Justice Fakharun Nisa Khokhar announced on Thursday. A mother of three children, including an infant, had sought a decree that she was entitled to a maintenance allowance even after the Iddat period because she was feeding an infant.
The arbitration council and the family court had decreed that she was entitled to a maintenance only for the Iddat period. Justice Fakharun Nisa adjudged that the decision of both the subordinate courts was not justifiable in the light of the injunctions of the Holy Quran.
She pointed out that there was no law on the statute books to help such women. The legal lacunas ought to be removed to incorporate the right of such mothers.
It was the obligation of the country's legislature to enact a law to ensure such a right which did not exist at present. The judge proposed that either an amendment should be made to Section 9 of the Family Laws Ordinance, 1961, or a new provision in the law be added to ensure that such mothers were not deprived of their legal right.
Such a provision would help arbitration councils to come to the help of such women. Justice Fakharun Nisa said that Indian law, Muslim Women Protection on Divorce, and Section 125 of the CrPC ensured the protection of the rights of divorced women.
Citing the famous case in which the Indian Supreme Court decreed in favour of Shah Bano, who came in litigation against her former husband Muhammad Ahmad Khan (AIR 1985 SC 945), the judge reminded men of their religious and legal obligation towards women even after divorce.
She held that equality and natural justice demanded that the women, who had been neglected throughout and then divorced by the husband without sufficient reasons and ultimately left at the mercy of circumstances in a male-dominated society, should be maintained by their former husbands.Justice Fakharun Nisa, however, ruled that the size of the maintenance allowance should not exceed the former husband's legitimate source of income. She adjudged that the divorced woman was entitled to a monthly allowance of Rs3,000 at a rate of Rs1,000 per child.