Padang Religious Court Decision No. 174 of 2015: Irrevocable Divorce Granted

The parties were married on 24 October 2007, after which they had lived with the plaintiff's parents for approximately four months, before moving to a rental property in Padang for approximately one year. They then moved to the defendant's parents' home before separating.

By 2009, the parties' marriage had become quarrelsome. The plaintiff submitted that this was largely due to the defendant's temperamental nature, whereby he would project his anger about something else onto the plaintiff, as well as the defendant having had an extra-marital affair. The plaintiff also submitted that whenever the parties argued, the defendant would resort to physical violence, leaving the plaintiff with physical injuries. The defendant would even threaten the plaintiff with sharp objects. The plaintiff's statement of claim also referenced the defendant's alcohol and drug addiction, for which she had unsuccessfully counselled him.

Problems escalated in January 2012 when the plaintiff was arrested after police found narcotics in the matrimonial home. At that point the defendant had already left the plaintiff, but because the plaintiff had not reported the defendant to the police earlier, she was imprisoned for one year. During this time the defendant very rarely went to visit the plaintiff. Upon her release from prison the plaintiff heard that the defendant had remarried but was also serving five years in prison himself for drug-related offences.

The court granted the plaintiff an irrevocable divorce (talak satu ba'in shugra) on the grounds that ongoing conflict between the parties meant that there was no hope for them to create a joyful and enduring domestic life, as envisaged in art 1 of Law No. 1 of 1947 on Marriage.

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