SC seeks Centre reply on Muslims opting for secular inheritance law | India News

NEW DELHI: A Muslim woman, NGO Khuran Sunnath Society and now a Muslim advocate have moved SC over the years seeking that they be kept out of the purview of “unfair” inheritance provisions in the Sharia law which they consider to be palpably discriminatory towards women, and sought that they be allowed to follow the secular Indian Succession Act.
Kerala-based Khuran Sunnath Society had moved a petition before SC a decade ago, and one Safiya PM in 2024, but the court is yet to decide on the issue. On Thursday, advocate Naushad KK’s PIL sought similar relief, but with a difference. A bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar heard Naushad and Safiya’s counsel and agreed to tag the petitions together.
The court issued notices to Centre and Kerala govERNMENt.
Sunnath Society had asked SC to adjudicate whether it was fair to discriminate against Muslim women purely based on gender and on an erroneous interpretation of Sharia, and deny them right of inheritance equal to Muslim men when the Constitution provided equal rights and protection to every citizen.
Safiya, who is also general secretary of NGO ‘Ex-Muslims of Kerala’, said, “Practices under Sharia law are highly discriminatory towards Muslim women and, hence, it violates fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The main reason why the petitioner is not following the tenets of Islam is the discriminatory practices of Sharia law against women. It will be a failure of justice if the petitioner is to be governed by Sharia law, even if she officially leaves the religion.” She sought a declaration that those who do not want to be governed by Muslim personal law must be allowed to be governed by the secular Indian Succession Act, 1925, both in the case of intestate and testamentary succession.
Naushad, who argued his PIL personally before the bench, said he did not challenge or seek to reform Muslim personal law but asked whether the state had a duty and constitutional authority to enforce religious mandates against an individual, who without renouncing Islam, wanted to bequeath his property through Indian Succession Act or as per his will. He said the state did not enforce fasting during Ramzan, or five-times prayer every day or dietary restrictions contained in the Quran upon Muslims but enforced Sharia provisions to disallow Muslims wanting to give their property as per their own will.