The most contentious legal debate on whether Muslim personal laws are unconstitutional or not as they discriminate against Muslim women will be settled by the Supreme Court in a marathon hearing lasting for a week beginning May 11.
A bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices NV Ramana and DY Chandrachud showed its readiness to frame the legal issues while dealing with the subject and posted the matter for Thursday. It asked the Centre, Muslim organisations and affected Muslim women and organisations pleading on their behalf to submit a common list of questions of law to be considered by the Court. Once the questions are framed the Court will post the matter for hearing, most likely on May 11.
On Tuesday, the Court went through a rough draft of questions of law involved in the bunch of cases prepared by one of the petitioners Shayara Bano, a victim who has challenged the validity of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy. Her lawyer senior advocate Amit Singh Chadha presented nine questions of constitutional importance arising in his matter. The Court felt that besides examining the validity of Muslim personal laws through the constitutional prism of Articles 14 and 21, there was need to consider its legality by way of its impact on International Conventions to which India is a signatory.
The Court felt that in these proceedings, the question whether Muslim organisations such as All India Muslim Personal law Board (AIMPlB) and Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind will have the authority to determine and declare personal laws applicable for whole of Indian Muslims will also need determination.
One of the organisations acting as a front for voicing the concerns of the affected Muslim women informed the Court that they received several complaints from women and want to present to the Court these facts. The bench said, "It's a pure question of law. We will not go into facts of any case at this stage." But after thinking over the matter, the bench said, "At the end of the day, it will be a human rights issue as well. If it is, then we will require the facts of pending cases before various courts along with its title so that it may be verified."
It is interesting to note that before Muslim women approached Court with their petitions challenging the discriminatory Muslim personal law practices, the first step was taken by the Supreme Court which took suo moto cognisance on the right of Muslim women vis-à-vis Muslim personal laws. The Court paved way for a deeper probe into whether these personal laws would fall foul of gender discrimination.