Muslim body Jamait Ulama I Hind opposes SC's attempt to do Shah Bano II

NEW DELHI: The Jamait Ulama I Hind, a Muslim body, on Friday sought to oppose any attempt by the Supreme Court to do a Shah Bano II. The 1985 court intervention in favour of Muslim women in the Shah Bano case had turned politically acrimonious, with Parliament passing a law to undo the judgement.

The ruling had increased the maintenance amount for divorced women from the measly sum enshrined in the earlier law, raising the hackles of the country’s largest minority community.

The then Rajiv Gandhi government tried to undo the damage with a new law capping the alimony. However, the courts have over the years whittled down the regressive law, which still stands in the statute book, to grant maintenance to divorced Muslim women under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

A suo motu attempt in the latter half of last year is the top court’s second attempt to wade into such a sensitive matter. A bench led by Justice AR Dave thought it fit to ask the Chief Justice of India to set up a bench to deal with issues that place Muslim women at a disadvantage despite constitutional guarantees of equality.

The court issued notices to the Attorney General and the National Legal Services Authority to formally submit their views on whether Muslim personal law was in conflict with the fundamental rights enshrined in Part III of the Constitution.

The court had then declared its intent to examine the legality of arbitrary divorces by uttering ‘talaq’ three times and of second marriages while the first subsisted.

Even before the exercise took off, an NGO claiming to represent the community approached the Supreme Court on Friday to oppose any move to address issues of gender bias in its personal laws. The Jamait sought the court’s permission to intercede in the debate and pleaded against any intervention in the community’s personal laws governing crucial issues that impact women’s rights, including inheritance and succession, marriage, divorce and maintenance.

In a plea moved by a member of its working committee, Mustaqeem Ahsan Azmi, the NGO argued that the views of the Muslin community must be considered while dealing with any such issue. The Jamait claimed that accordingly, it was conveying the community’s opposition to any such attempt by the court to decide these issues.