Allahabad HC: Sex With Wife Above The Age Of 15 Is Not Rape (for Muslims).

Chandigarh HC: A Muslim girl who is less than 18 years old and has attained puberty is at liberty to marry anyone as per Muslim Personal Law.

“Puberty” as per Islamic law is when a girl starts her menstruation cycle (and could happen even when the girl is 10-11 years old).

You may wonder why Indian Courts are giving such Shariat compliant verdicts and many are also blaming Indian Judiciary.

Is there a reason behind all these? Yes.

The answer lies in the law which governs the Muslim personal laws, and that is called the “THE MUSLIM PERSONAL LAW (SHARIAT) APPLICATION ACT, 1937”. The law is barely 1-2 pages long and I have pasted section 2 which is the crux of the law at the end of this article. The law says that all matters of personal law (marriage, divorce, succession etc.) for the Muslims shall be governed by “Sharia”.

That’s the main reason why Sharia is coming in picture in matters of Muslim personal law. The job of courts is to uphold the law, the law says all Muslims shall be governed by Shariat and the Courts are abiding by that.

It is not Judiciary’s mandate to make laws. Its job is to interpret laws. And it is doing its job.

So, I don’t see any fault of Judiciary here.

I would rather put the blame squarely on Executive and Legislature for not repealing the law. The law has been in force since 1937, nearly a hundred years. You cannot blame the British, they have left long back. Why no Govt. has repealed the law? Why no Govt has made any serious attempts to codify the Muslim personal laws? It is not only Congress, BJP has been in power for long and has made not attempt in this direction.

Forget, uniform Civil code, at least Codify the Muslim laws just as Hindu, Christian and Parsi laws have been codified.

 

Section 2 of the law:

2. Application of Personal Law to Muslims.—Notwithstanding any custom or usage to the contrary, in all questions (save questions relating to agricultural land) regarding intestate succession, special property of females, including personal properly inherited or obtained under contract or gift or any other provision of Personal Law. marriage, dissolution of marriage, including talaq, ila, zihar, lian, khula and mubaraat, maintenance, dower, guardianship, gifts, trusts and trust properties, and wakfs (other than charities and charitable institutions and charitable and religious endowments) the rule of decision in cases where the parties are Muslims shall be the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat).

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