Revision as of 13:54, 30 March 2015

Fatwas: legality of in India

Fatwas have no legal standing: SC

Dhananjay.Mahapatra New Delhi:

The Times of India Jul 08 2014

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that fatwas issued by Sharia courts or muftis had no legal sanctity, saying the defiance of fatwas won't have civil or criminal consequences.

The court also said it would be illegal to impose these religion-based opinions on personal issues on ci tizens in violation of their fundamental rights.

“Whatever may be the status of fatwa during Mughal or British rule, it has no place in independent In dia under our constitutional scheme,“ a bench of Justices Chandramauli K Prasad and Pinaki C Ghose said.

“Any person trying to enforce a fatwa by any method shall be illegal and has to be dealt with in accordance with law,“ it added.

There have been bizarre fatwas across almost the entire spectrum of social life of Muslims -from banning a popular all-girls Kashmiri band to asking a woman in UP to treat her husband as her son after she was raped by her father-in-law. It was the mushrooming of fatwas, ranging from dissolution of marriage to dress code for women, which led advocate Vishwa Lochan Madan to file a PIL questioning jurisdiction of sharia courts, Dar-ul-Qaza (personal law courts) and Deoband muftis in dictating social behaviour of citizens and, in the process, virtually setting up a parallel judicial system on issues relating to Muslim personal law.

“A fatwa has no legal sanction and cannot be enforced by any legal process either by the Dar-ul-Qaza issuing that or the person concerned or for that matter anybody . The person or the body concerned may ignore it and it will not be necessary for anybody to challenge it before any court of law,“ said Justice Prasad, who authored the judgment.

“In case any person or body tries to impose it, their act would be illegal. Therefore, the grievance of the petitioner that Dar-ul-Qazas and Nizam-e-Qaza are running a parallel judicial system is misconceived,“ the bench said. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board had told the apex court, “Establishment of a network of judicial system throughout the country to help Muslims get their disputes settled by qazis may not have police powers but shall have the book of Allah in hand and Sunnat of the Rasool and all decisions should be according to the book and the Sunnat. This will bring Muslims to Muslim courts. They will get justice.“ But the bench was not amused. It said, “The object of establishment of such a court may be laudable but we have no doubt in our mind that it has no legal status.“

Ration card in woman's name

The Times of India

Mar 18 2015

`Ration card in woman's name is un-Islamic'

Priyangi Agarwal

The food security law decrees that fresh ration cards be issued in the name of the eldest woman of a family. Offended by this depiction of women as the head of families, “which goes against Indian culture and Islamic law“, Sunni Barelvi Markaz of Dargah Ala Hazrat has issued a fatwa telling followers to keep away from ration cards.

“We have asked our followers to not apply for ration cards,“ said Mufti Mohammed Saleem Noori.

“In both Indian and Islamic culture, the male is regarded the head of family . Women should concentrate on creating an environment of heaven in the house,“ Noori added. He said some clerics will meet PM Narendra Modi to ask him for an amendment to the Act. Priyangi Agarwal