Without going into the question of the merits of this, to many people it may appear a totally novel assertion. But it is not so. The Indian Muslim clergy, who constitute the main body of Personal Law Board, have been agitating on this issue right from 1864 when the office of the kazi was abolished. In the following years the clergy kept demanding that the office be revived with judicial and non-judicial powers. The clergy consistently held the view that cases regulated by Islamic law can and should be tried by kazis alone and not by non-Muslim judges. The government, however, turned down all such demands.

But in 1879 the government agreed to enact a law to authorise provincial governments to recognise kazis performing private, non-judicial functions — that is, duties/ceremonies prescribed by Muslim Law. The law as passed in 1880 made it clear that kazis will not have any exclusive jurisdiction even in the exercise of their non-judicial functions. The clergy were angry and in the following years, they started setting up at various places a Darul Ifta (Institute of Juristic Verdicts) headed by muftis as parallel courts of justice. Since the verdicts of muftis lacked both official sanction and binding force, a number of aggrieved Muslims chose to take their cases to the courts. The clergy resented this.

It is important here to mention the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, providing for judicial dissolution of marriage, particularly at the instance of an aggrieved Muslim woman. Since the law, as it prevailed then, made it almost impossible for a Muslim woman to secure divorce, many women in the early 20th century reportedly renounced their faith in order to be granted divorce on the grounds of apostasy. This led the clergy to start looking for alternatives.

... contd.