Woman wins legal battle after decade
Photo: File
A woman’s struggle bore fruit after a decade on Friday when Punjab’s top court accepted her stance that the nikahnama (marriage contract) prepared by a man pretending to be her husband was forged as the marriage never solemnised.
The case also raised questions about the country's judicial system where 10 years passed merely to establish a document as forged.
Lahore High Court’s Justice Abid Hussain Chattha, in his detailed judgement, observed that the respondent failed to establish the free consent and will of the petitioner woman with respect to the alleged nikahnama and failed to discharge the burden of proof regarding the registration of a valid and lawful marriage.
Hence, he said, the courts below have grossly misread and non-read the evidence on record and the impugned judgements are not sustainable in view of the law.
The petitioner’s plea is accepted while the impugned judgements handed in by district courts on October 28, 2014, and November 11, 2016, are set aside.
It is clear that the entire episode of the alleged registration of the marriage of the petitioner was surrounded by mystery. It is quite apparent that the nikah was solemnised through a plan and collusive arrangement. In these circumstances, there is no reason to disbelieve the simple story put forward by the petitioner. Had she been actually married and wanted to remarry with another person, she had the option to file a suit for dissolution of marriage in the court instead of filing the instant suit through a concocted story, the judgement added.
It said that the petitioner successfully discharged the burden of proof that nikah had not taken place with her free consent and will, whereafter, the burden of proof shifted upon the respondent to establish her free will and consent to nikah as well as that nikah ceremony had actually taken place.
The judgement said that the place of nikah was not the village where both parties were residing. The absence of the parents of the bride and her relatives was proved without any corresponding reasons for their absence.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 19th, 2022.