The Supreme Court’s initiative to scrutinise gender discrimination in Islamic laws of marriage and divorce met its first challenge when Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, a Maharashtra-based organisation, on Friday said the personal law drew its authority from the Koran and not from the Constitution.
On October 16 last year, the court had suo motu registered a public interest litigation (PIL) petition called “Muslim women’s quest for equality”, empowering itself to find out if the current practices under the Muslim personal law were violative of the fundamental rights of equality and dignity.
Settled factumThe Jamiat, which demanded the right to be heard, contested before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur that fundamental rights “cannot touch upon” the Muslim personal law. It said the factum that personal law was outside the ambit of fundamental rights had been settled by the apex court in past judgments.
Accepting the organisation’s application, the Bench agreed to set up an appropriate Bench to hear the matter. The case has been posted to be heard after six weeks.
“Personal laws do not derive their validity on the ground that they have been passed or made by a legislature or other competent authority. The foundational sources of personal law are their respective scriptural texts,” Jamiat said. “The Mohammedan law is founded essentially on the Holy Koran, and thus, it cannot fall within the purview of the expression ‘laws in force’ as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution.”
