The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Uttarakhand High Court order that had banned all religious outfits, bodies and groups of people in the state from issuing ‘fatwas’.‘Fatwa’ is advice or opinion given by qualified Islamic scholars in response to queries asked on religious matters.
A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta also issued notices to the state government and the high court on a plea filed by Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind challenging the court’s August 30 order.
The high court, while declaring ‘fatwa’ as unconstitutional and illegal, had passed the order after a media report was brought to its notice that a panchayat had issued ‘fatwa’ for externment of a rape victim’s family in Roorkee’s Laksar. Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, in its plea, said the high court’s order banning issuance of ‘fatwa’ by religious outfits and bodies was illegal and unsustainable and legality of ‘fatwa’ was already adjudicated by SC in 2014.