The bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Khijir Ahmed Chowdhury passed the order on Sunday, settling a rule on the amendment of the Nikahnama under section 9 of the Bangladesh Muslim Marriage & Divorce (Registration) Act, 1974.
Lawyer ZI Khan Panna and Ainun Nahar Siddiqua appeared for the petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder represented the state.
“Words like ‘Kumari’, ‘widow’ or ‘divorced’ have been used in the column No. 5 of Nikahnama to indicate the marital status of the bride. Our objection was to the use of word ‘Kumari’. We had filed the petition challenging the word to protect the right to privacy,” lawyer Ainun Nahar told bdnews24.com.
“The court has directed the authorities to replace the word as it is a matter of privacy. The mention of this word in the Nikahnama creates discrimination. The court also called for the addition of another column, incorporating the options 'unmarried, widower or divorced' for the groom.”
“The marriage registration form for Muslims was designed during the Pakistan era. No further change has been made to the form since independence, save for replacing Pakistan with Bangladesh on the masthead,” she added.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Naripokkha and Bangladesh Mahila Parishad had filed a writ petition over the ‘discriminative’ section 9 of the Bangladesh Muslim Marriage & Divorce (Registration) Act on Sep 7, 2014.
According to the petition, the Nikahnama contains a column on the marital status of the bride but there is no such column in case of the groom.
The High Court had previously issued a rule after an initial hearing on the petition, asking the authorities why column No. 5 of the Nikahnama should not be declared ‘discriminative’ and ‘illegal’.
The court also asked why the use of word ‘Kumari’ should not be replaced or why a column should not be included in the form in the case of groom.