LAHORE (Muhammad Ashfaq) – The Lahore High Court has ruled that a woman who obtains a divorce due to her husband's abuse, cruelty or other marital misconduct is not automatically deprived of her right to receive dower (haq mehr).
In a significant judgment on khula, dissolution of marriage and dower rights, the court held that entitlement to dower must be determined on the facts of each case and that the return of dower is not mandatory in every case of khula.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued the written verdict while dismissing, at the preliminary hearing stage, a petition filed by Arsalan challenging the decisions of the Family Court and the District Judge in Toba Tek Singh.
The petitioner argued that sub-sections (5) and (6) of Section 10 of the Family Courts Act, 1964, had already been declared inconsistent with Islamic injunctions by the Federal Shariat Court and that the matter was pending before the Supreme Court. He contended that the Family Court had no legal basis to award any portion of the dower to his former wife.
According to the judgment, the couple married on March 18, 2022, with a dower of Rs100,000, which remained unpaid.
The wife, Nisha Shahid, told the Family Court that her husband began physically assaulting her after she demanded payment of the dower. She alleged he was unemployed, habitually violent over minor issues, addicted to theft and narcotics, demanded money from her parents, verbally abused her, expelled her from the house, failed to provide maintenance and never attempted reconciliation.
The Family Court partly accepted her claim and awarded her 50% of the deferred dower, while the husband's appeal was dismissed by the District Judge as not maintainable.
The High Court distinguished between khula and judicial dissolution of marriage, observing that if a woman seeks khula solely because she no longer wishes to continue the marriage, the issue of returning the dower may arise. However, where the marriage ends because of the husband's cruelty, violence, mistreatment, failure to provide maintenance or other legally recognised grounds, the wife retains her entitlement to dower and the husband cannot demand its return.
The court further held that abuse includes not only physical violence but also psychological, emotional, verbal and economic abuse. It added that a wife is not required to produce a medical report or FIR for every incident, and that her credible testimony and surrounding circumstances may constitute sufficient evidence.
The judgment directed Family Courts to first determine the actual cause of the breakdown of the marriage before deciding the issue of dower, stressing that merely describing the divorce as khula does not automatically extinguish the wife's dower rights.
The Lahore High Court also recommended that the Punjab government and the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan amend the law to require Family Courts to clearly determine responsibility for the breakdown of a marriage before deciding dower claims, ensuring that women are not deprived of dower where the husband's misconduct is established.
The court ordered copies of the judgment to be sent to the Punjab Law Secretary and the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.