PIL in Madras High Court to ban illegal shariats

CHENNAI: A PIL has been filed in Madras High Court to ban the functioning of illegal Shariats, run by advocates and religious heads, granting divorce to Muslims and dealing with property matters.

Calling them kangaroo courts, the PIL from Abdur Rahman, an NRI in England, alleged that there are hundreds of such 'courts' functioning in the State, including one on Anna Salai. They granted divorce decrees whimsically and dealt with property disputes, too, he submitted.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, before which the PIL came up for hearing, issued notices to the State Home Secretary, DGP and City Police Commissioner.

"Because of the illegal functioning of the Shariats, the family system of a number of Muslim families have collapsed and hundreds of spouses suffer the ignominy of separation because of poverty," the PIL said.

By its name and by various publicity methods, the 'councils' have created an impression in the minds of local Muslims that they function in accordance with the Shariat and all its orders and judgments were religiously binding upon them. "Muslims facing family disputes are strongly and religiously encouraged to approach them by giving their complaints and on receiving them, the councils would send ‘summons’ and also call the opposite party over phone. Under the name of religious injunction, the parties are forced to appear before it," Rahman said.

Narrating has own experience, Rahman said though he too believed they were authentic fora and approached one with a plea to reunite with his wife, the council forced him to sign a letter stating that he was willing for talaq and that was pronounced.

Though the Supreme Court has declared such entities as illegal, the number of disputes entertained by the councils had exceeded a few hundreds every year, as was evident from the case number given to Rahman's petition, the PIL said.