Supreme Court’s big decision for Muslim women
The Supreme Court of the country has announced a big decision for Muslim women today. Now Muslim women can also apply for maintenance under Section 125 of CrPC against their husbands. This decision of the court has given relief to those Muslim women who are divorced or forced to live separately from their husbands.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih today dismissed the plea of ​​a Muslim man and said that Section 125 of the CrPC applies to all women and not just married women. In fact, the petitioner challenged in court the award of maintenance to the divorced wife under Section 125. The court also said that a Muslim woman can seek maintenance under Section 125 and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
What is Section 125 of CrPC and Supreme Court decision?
Section 125 of the CrPC deals with orders for maintenance of wives, children and parents who are unable to maintain themselves. A ‘wife’ under this includes a woman who has been divorced or divorced by her husband and has not remarried.
The history of maintenance for Muslim women dates back to the Supreme Court’s decision in the famous Shah Bano case of 23 April 1985. In the Shah Bano case, a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that Article 125 is a secular law. And if the wife (including a divorced wife) is unable to maintain herself, she shall be entitled to demand maintenance from her husband.
The Supreme Court held that Section 125 of CrPC is actually secular. It provides immediate and short-term relief to people who are unable to support themselves. The court said that whether the husband and wife are Hindu or Muslim, Christian or Parsi, this provision can be applied to everyone.
The decision in 1985 sparked outrage among the country’s Muslim community, who believed the Supreme Court’s decision interfered with the religious practices of Muslims. In response to the Shah Bano decision, the Rajiv Gandhi government enacted a new law, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986, which provided a special regime for divorced Muslim women to receive maintenance.
According to a law enacted in 1986, maintenance for divorced Muslim women was limited to Iddat (90 days) and the amount of maintenance they received was limited to the amount of dowry.
This was followed by a challenge to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 in the Daniyal Talifi case in 2001. Here, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the law, stating that Muslim men are liable to pay maintenance to divorced wives even after the iddat period.
After this, the Supreme Court and the High Court gave several decisions, which held that a Muslim divorced woman is entitled to seek maintenance under Section 125 of the CrPC.
A person from Telangana filed the application
In a recent case, a Muslim man challenged the decision of the Family Court and the Telangana High Court asking him to pay maintenance to his divorced wife.
The woman initially approached the family court seeking maintenance under Section 125 CrPC. The family court ordered the woman’s husband to pay Rs 20,000 as maintenance, a decision of the family court was challenged in the Telangana High Court. The High Court upheld the maintenance order, but reduced the amount of maintenance to be awarded to the wife.
Aggrieved by the court’s decisions, the Muslim man filed a petition in the Supreme Court questioning whether a Muslim woman should get maintenance under Section 125 of the CrPC or under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act.
