ISLAMABAD: A man who ‘mistakenly’ married a transgender woman and then divorced her approached the Supreme Court asking to be exempt from paying a monthly alimony of Rs15,000.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali heard the petition filed by Mohammad Shafi, a resident of a village near Multan.

After hearing the arguments of Rao Ubaid, the counsel for Mohammad Shafi, the court summoned Rani Anjum, the trans-woman Mohammad had married, during the first week of October, when the apex court will resume the hearing of the case, After being married for a few years and being issueless, Muhammad Shafi had decided to marry for the second time, to which his first wife agreed as well.

In 2012, he had forwarded his proposal to Rani Anjum’s father, not knowing that Anjum was trans. The proposal was accepted and the wedding took place in September of that year.

After finding out that Anjum was a trans-woman, Shafi filed an application before a family court for dissolving the marriage.

After the divorce, Anjum filed a case against Shafi, asking for a monthly maintenance and the family court in Multan in 2014 ordered Shafi to pay Anjum Rs15,000 per month and directed him to transfer the land he had promised as dowry.

Shafi then challenged the order before the Lahore High Court (LHC) Multan Bench, which dismissed the petition and Shafi then approached the Supreme Court.

Arguing before the court, Rao Ubaid argued that since there is no concept of marrying a trans-woman according to Muslim Family Law, Anjum had therefore no right to claim a monthly maintenance. He said that since the law is silent on the issue, his client should not be asked to pay alimony.

The counsel added that the matter is still pending for adjudication before the family court of Multan and that the next date of the hearing is September 29.

After hearing the arguments, the SC put off further proceedings till the first week of October.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2016