New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Centre’s response on a plea by a Muslim woman seeking to be governed by the Indian succession law instead of Shariat.
The matter came up before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted before the bench that an interesting question has been raised by the petitioner. Mehta said the petitioner lady is a born Muslim, and she says she does not believe in Shariat and thinks it is a regressive law.
The bench asked Mehta to file a counter affidavit. Mehta requested the bench to grant three weeks to take instructions in the matter. The bench granted four weeks time and scheduled the matter for hearing in the week beginning on May 5.
The plea has been filed by Safiya P M, general secretary of 'Ex-Muslims of Kerala'. The plea said, "Petitioner is seeking a declaration that the persons who do not want to be governed by the Muslim Personal Law must be allowed to be governed by the secular law of the country, viz, the Indian Succession Act, 1925 both in the case of intestate and testamentary succession".
The plea said that the petitioner, a born Muslim woman to a non-practising Muslim father, who has not officially left the religion, is facing the peculiar problem in protecting her precious civil rights.
In India any person who is born as a Muslim is governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. "As per Sharia law, the person who leaves her faith in Islam, will be ousted from her community and thereafter she is not entitled for any inheritance right in her parental property. Further, the Petitioner is apprehensive about the application of the law in the case of her lineal descendant, her only daughter, if the Petitioner officially leaves the religion," said the plea.
The plea said the petitioner wishes to get a declaration that she shall not be governed by Muslim Personal Law for any of the matters listed in section 2 or 3 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, but there is no provision either in the Act or in the Rules wherein she can obtain such a certificate.
