The Gauhati High Court has ruled that talaq-e-hassan—a form of Islamic divorce involving three successive pronouncements spaced roughly a month apart—is a legally valid method of divorce under current Indian law and is not prohibited. The ruling distinguishes this practice from instant triple talaq, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and subsequently criminalized.
The case arose when a petitioner sought official registration of a talaq-e-hassan divorce under Assam’s 2024 law mandating compulsory registration of Muslim marriages and divorces. The court directed the jurisdictional registrar to proceed with registering the divorce, provided the procedural requirements under the state law are met and the registrar verifies that the pronouncements were genuinely made.
Legal experts note the distinction between talaq-e-hassan and instant triple talaq matters significantly due to the former’s built-in reconciliation period. Meanwhile, women’s rights advocates offered mixed reactions, with some welcoming the procedural clarity for record-keeping and others raising concerns about power imbalances in unilateral divorce procedures available to Muslim men.