ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday denounced the distressing and sorrowful social practice of `weaponising` infertility, or even the mere suspicion of it, against women.

`This social prejudice routinely results in courts of law becoming venues for humiliating a woman under the guise of litigation,` regretted Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi.

The CJP, who was part of a two-judge bench alongside Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, was remarking on a case filed by one Saleh Muhammad against a March 3, 2025, judgement of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), regarding a dispute overdower claims, dowry articles and maintenance of the respondent, Mehnaz Begum.

`This court cannot but record in the strongest possible terms its disapproval of the manner in which the respondent a woman already abandoned, denied maintenance and left to the mercy of litigation was subjected to repeated, invasive and demeaning scrutiny of her very personhood at the behest of a frivolous and cruel defence,` Justice Afridi bemoaned.

Saleh Muhammad and Mehnaz Begum married in 2006, but in 2007, the woman was left at her parental home after allegedly enduring physical abuse at the hands of the petitioner.

The husband then went abroad, severed all communi-cation, refused to provide maintenance and effectively abandoned her within a year of their marriage. Three years later, he remarried and has two children from that union.

Left with no other recourse, Mehnaz Begum initiated legal proceedings in 2015 for the recovery of her dower, dowry articles and maintenance.

No ground to challenge `womanhood` Rather than contesting the claim on any credible grounds, the petitioner pursued a defence alleging the respondent was medically unfit for conjugal duties or to bear children,thus questioningherstatus as a `female` under the law. This claim was rejected by subsequent medical tests, but the petitioner continued to deny her dower and mainte-nance on this basis.

`While it is possible that the petitioner viewed this as a genuine grievance or felt wronged in some manner, the manner in which this allegation, targeting the very identity of the respondent, was pursued remains troubling, the Supreme Court noted.

`It was pressed persistently and aggressively through three tiers of judicial scrutiny, unnecessarily so given that all forums rendered findings effectively refuting it, thereby subjecting the respondent to what this Court recognises as profound personal humiliation,` it added.

In the seven-page order, the CJP emphasised that it must be acknowledged without equivocation that infertility, even if present, was no ground to deny a woman her dower ormaintenance and it was certainly no ground to challenge her womanhood.

`To convert such personal pain into a legal weapon is not only an abuse of the process, but an affront to human dignity that should not be enabled,` he said.

`It also bears emphasis that our religion and culture treat the marital bond as a sacred covenant. The Holy Quran has described the spouse as a garment; the relationship between a husband and wife is likened to that of libaas in our religion,` the CJP said, stressing that the ideals of protection, mutual respect and dignity in marriage must not be compromised in any event.

`Lest we forget: women in our society constitute a vulnerable group, whose dignity requires vigilant protectionand care,` he observed.

Fine to be paid to `wronged` woman The courts could not, and would not, be passive venues for the perpetuation of social prejudices that harm women and subject them to one trauma after another, CJP Yahya said.

`It is not a matter of judicial discretion but of constitutional and moral obligation that the personal dignity of all who appear before the courts be duly safeguarded, particularly where the power imbalance between the parties is so manifest,` he added.

The CJP said that in the present case, the petitioner has not merely wasted judicial time, he has caused a woman already in a position of vulnerability to suffer degradation and trauma over the course of protracted litigation in three forums spread over a decade. `This court would be remiss in its duty were it to allow such conduct to pass without sanction,` he said.

The court dismissed the petition and imposed a Rs500,000 fine, payable to the respondent, as a show of strong disapproval for the petitioner`s conduct.

`It is hoped this order serves as a reminder to all litigants and counsel that the dignity of every individual, particularly women, must be respected in all judicial proceedings,` the CJP noted, adding that frivolous allegations attacking the dignity of a woman would not be countenanced in any court of law.