Islamabad:
The Supreme Court asked the federal government and provincial governments to examine the “Nakahnama form” in order to make it user -friendly, to effectively protect the rights of the parties, especially women.
A bench of three members of the Supreme Court, led by judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, noted that without examining the Nikahnama form as a whole, the positive measure taken by the Punjab government may not achieve the planned objective to protect the rights of women.
The Nikahnama form was prescribed in the 1961 ordinance and was informed as part of the 1961 rules schedule. However, the federal government is empowered to establish rules concerning cantonment zones and provincial governments in their respective fields of competence.
According to a 22 -page judgment, written by judge Athar Minallah in a family dispute case, the expressions used in the current form of Nikahnama were ambiguous and, consequently, open to misinterpreted.
The judgment said that the federal and provincial governments could consider reviewing the Nikahnama form “to make it more user -friendly”, so that “even an literate person of ordinary prudence has no trouble understanding their requirements” and the columns.
The judgment underlined the need to delete “ambiguities likely to come from vague and ambiguous expressions used in columns titles in the currently prescribed form” in the 1961 ordinance, read with the rules of 1961.
“This would not only protect the rights of the parties in general and women in particular, but would also reduce disputes, because a form prescribed by users of Nikahnama will give rise to lower litigation,” said the judgment.
The court noted that Nikah could also be celebrated by a person other than a Nikah registrar. However, he said that integrity, competence, knowledge and understanding of Nikah registraires were crucial to effectively protect the rights of the parties, especially women.
In the province of Punjab, the judgment continued, the law of 2015 imposed a statutory on the Nikah registrar to precisely fill all the columns of the Nikahnama with specific responses from the bride and the married.
The court declared that a violation of this statutory obligation exposed a registrar of Nikah to the criminal consequences, that is to say a prison sentence of up to a month and a fine of 25,000 rupees. He added that the goal was to protect women from the farm and provide them with rapid resolution of family disputes and auxiliary issues.
“The legislator [Punjab Assembly] was therefore aware of the challenges that women face in the context of the exercise of their rights concerning the rule of marriage terms and conditions, “wrote Minallah.
“The law of 2015, through which the sub-sections (2a) and (4) (i) were inserted in article 5 of the 1961 ordinance, was definitively appreciable to ensure the rights of the parties, in particular women, by keeping in view the social and cultural standards which prevail in many regions of the country,” he said.
The court also said that it was a step in the right direction to reduce the number of disputes and, therefore, the volume of disputes too.
“However, we are of the opinion that without examining the prescribed form of Nikahnama as a whole, in particular the expressions used in the columns sections, this positive stage taken in the province of Punjab may not achieve its planned objective to protect the rights of women in particular.”
The registrars of Nikah, according to the judgment, played the most important role to ensure that each party exercised its rights and that the entries recorded in a Nikahnama correctly reflected their intention.
“It is a statutory duty of each government to guide the union councils in the establishment of qualifications and adequate criteria for granting licenses to people to fulfill the functions of Nikah registrars,” he said.
“In addition, the training and evaluation of the performance of those who have been authorized would also guarantee that social or cultural standards and influences do not prevail over the absolute rights granted to women under the law,” he added.
“Governments may also consider taking measures to ensure that people of integrity and those who have the qualification and knowledge required are granted licenses and regular audits of the Nikahnamas file maintained by union councils.”
The court ordered the registrar’s office to send copies of this judgment to the secretary of the cabinet, the government of Pakistan, and to the chief secretaries of the respective provinces so that they can place it before the authorities and forums competent to examine the observations.
The court expected effective measures to guarantee the safeguard of the rights of the parties to a marriage contract, in particular the bride, which could be more vulnerable due to several factors, including cultural and social norms and beliefs.
