The Muslim Personal Law Board has recently taken a new initiative for “social reform” that involves the setting up of “Sharia courts” (Islamic law courts) as “the first option for litigants” and the “rolling back” by Supreme Court of its judgments which are not in line with the Board’s views on Sharia (Islamic Law) and its tenets.

It defies reason how the question of social reform can be linked to either the working of the judicial courts or the rolling back of the Supreme Court’s decisions. The issues relating to social reform are always addressed to the community whereas the resolution adopted by the Muslim Personal Law Board (MPLB) has addressed all the issues to the authorities and has also questioned the Supreme Court’s judicial competence to interpret Muslim family laws. The laws undoubtedly have an Islamic origin. But they are on the statute books only because they have been enacted by Parliament.

A careful reading of the MPLB resolution makes it clear that what it has basically set out is an agenda of “judicial reforms” of their choice which, if agreed to, will establish the MPLB as the sole and final judicial authority in matters of Muslim family laws. This will not only deny to Muslim citizens of India, both men and women, the right of judicial remedy in cases of being aggrieved but also deny to the Indian courts the right to interpret a group of laws that deal with marriage, divorce, inheritance etc and have been enacted by Parliament.

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