Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: What began as an FIR under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 has widened into a grave criminal case involving allegations of sexual violence, coercion and child abuse, exposing a largely untested legal grey zone around what women face after triple talaq.According to the FIR registered on December 9, 2025, at Said Nagli police station in Amroha, the woman alleged that after being divorced through instant triple talaq, she was repeatedly pressured by her husband, his relatives and clerics to undergo “halala” so she could be taken back into the marriage.Halala is an exception under Muslim personal law that permits a divorced couple to remarry after the woman marries and consummates a marriage with another man and then divorces him. In practice, the FIR alleges, this often took the form of pre-planned, short-term arrangements — sometimes a single encounter — meant solely to facilitate reconciliation.
In her complaint, the woman told police that the process amounted to sexual violence. She alleged she was “gang-raped under the false pretext of halala”, with the acts carried out through threats, intimidation and coercion.Police have invoked Sections 3 and 4 of the 2019 triple talaq law, along with multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita dealing with rape, aggravated hurt, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.Initially, the FIR named three accused — the woman’s husband, his cousin and a hakim (traditional healer). As the investigation progressed, more accused were added.Amroha police confirmed that the husband has been arrested. “The FIR has been registered on the basis of a written complaint. Further action will depend on corroboration and evidence,” said SHO Vikas Sahrawat, adding that police teams are searching for other accused who are absconding.This week, investigators also added provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act after examining the woman’s age at the time of marriage, significantly expanding the scope of the case. The move has once again brought focus on an unresolved legal question: Muslim personal law remains uncodified and does not prescribe a minimum age of marriage, instead linking marriageability to puberty — an issue on which courts across states have taken divergent views and which remains unsettled by the Supreme Court.The FIR spans nearly a decade of alleged abuse. The woman told police she was forcefully married in 2015 at the age of 15, subjected to instant triple talaq in 2016 and again in 2021, and compelled to undergo three reconciliation attempts through halala.After the first talaq in 2016, she alleged she was told she could return to her husband only after halala — a process that, according to her complaint, involved sexual assault by an “intermediary”.In February 2025, she alleged she was informed that the process would have to be repeated twice since the marriage had broken down on two earlier occasions. After years of single parenthood and financial hardship, she said she once again believed assurances that she would be remarried to her husband. “It was after a long time that I realised what had happened to me was wrong,” she told TOI.A former student of one of Aligarh’s leading schools, the woman comes from a family with a background in public service — her grandfather served as a DSP in the Uttar Pradesh police and her father is a lawyer.With her husband now in jail, she said she is struggling to keep life going for her young daughter. The husband, however, has denied all allegations, claiming that he was harassed and threatened by the woman and her relatives.
