[Dissolution of marriage by Court in certain circumstances] — Repealed

Section 5 has been a shell since 17 March 1939. It originally provided for judicial dissolution of a Muslim marriage in certain circumstances (such as desertion, cruelty, impotence and false accusation of adultery). Within two years of the Act's commencement, Parliament took that subject out and gave it a more elaborate, dedicated statute — the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 — and repealed Section 5 of this Act as a consequential clean-up.

Today, a Muslim wife seeking judicial divorce relies entirely on Section 2 of the 1939 Act, which lists nine grounds (whereabouts of husband unknown for four years, failure to maintain for two years, imprisonment for seven years or more, failure to perform marital obligations for three years without reasonable cause, impotence at the time of marriage, two-year insanity or leprosy or virulent venereal disease, marriage before fifteen with right of repudiation before eighteen, cruelty, and any other ground recognised under Muslim law). Section 5 here is preserved in the source PDF only as a historical anchor.