Do away with Shariat courts: Muslim lawyer to apex court

A Muslim woman advocate on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to do away with Shariat courts, saying it raised a question mark on the judiciary. In an affidavit, advocate Farha Faiz sought directions from the apex court to refer the question of reforms in personal laws, being examined suo motu as “Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality”, to the five-judge Constitution bench.

“The country has its Supreme Court, high courts, district courts and family courts, along with federal shariat courts. Despite the existence of a well-developed judicial system along with federal shariat courts, these fundamentalists are not satisfied and are regulating their own shariat courts on the pattern of Dar-ul-Qazas,” she contended.

“There is no difference between the logic of AIMPLB, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan and Jamat-ud-Dawa of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of Pakistan, who is also running shariat courts in the name of arbitration, speedy and less expensive justice,” the advocate said.

She submitted that despite several safeguards, like the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, the Muslim Woman (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 and the Dissolution of Marriage Act, 1939, a Muslim woman is still unsafe and these laws were not able to wean the community away from discriminating women and required an overhaul. She maintained that triple talaq is simply un-Islamic, and this was being defended by AIMPLB.

“The clerics and politicians spread negative things, misinterpret the teachings of the Quran and direct the Muslim community against the government and the nation. They have not faced any intolerance in the country but brainwash the community and give a negative image,” she contended.