SYED MAQSOOD Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference made by the learned single Judge of this Court who has found himself not able to follow a judgment of Division Bench of this Court reported in Syed Jamaluddin v. Valiam Bee, 1975 (2) APLJ 20 : (1975 Cri LJ 1884). The reasons for not following this judgment are the judgment of various other High Courts. We have gone through those judgments and we do not find any ground to come to a conclusion that the law laid down by the Division Bench of this Court in Syed Jamaluddin v. Valiam Bee (1975 Cri LJ 1884) (supra) needs reconsideration and we find ourselves in agreement with the law laid down by the Division Bench of this Court.

(2.) The question referred to Division Bench by the learned single Judge is.

(3.) It is well known through Hadith and Holy Quran that divorce is acceptable only as a necessary evil. It is also true that Holy Quran and Hadith make it obligatory to make efforts for reconciliation before Talaq as pronounced. But in our view, if those efforts are not made, the power of Talaq does not get diluted. The power of Talaq is absolute and it would be in fitness of things if it was pronounced after reconciliation failed. But if a person divorced without trying to reconcile, that itself shows that the relations are at a point of no return. The reconciliation presupposes a mental state in which both parties are ready to explore the possibility of living together. If one party, is adamant to leave the other, reconciliation itself would be fruitless. Therefore, whenever a person divorces his wife without an effort to reconciliation it shows his state of mind and in such a case it would appear that the person had already decided to pronounce the divorce and as such the reconciliation would be an exercise in futility. In the present case also the record disclosed that the husband has already remarried, therefore, in such a case reconciliation would not have been otherwise possible. Considering the whole law on the subject including the judgment of the Privy Council the Division Bench of: this Court in Syed Jamaluddin v. Valian Bee, 1975 Cri LJ 1884 at Pp. 1889-90) held.