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Muslim law board to hold meeting on June 21

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has called for a halt to 'interference' into the personal laws of Muslims and other religious minorities in the country.

At its conference beginning in Hyderabad on June 21, the AIPMPLB is expected to express its 'concern' over certain judgments 'interfering' with the Shariat (Muslim personal law).

AIPMPLB sources said the meet would also demand 'protection' of Shariat from any 'parallel legislation' or judgment by courts.

Board secretary Rahim Qureshi said 201 members from all over India would attend the three-day conference.

The meeting will discuss the implications of a recent judgment by Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court that a Muslim divorce, or talaq, should be ratified in a court for legal sanction.

"The board wants the Shariat Application Act of 1937 to be applied for all cases relating to Muslim Personal Law. The Act says that in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession, women's property and wills, if the disputants are Muslims, the Shariat should be followed," he pointed out.

"The Muslims feel that the rules of Shariat governing their personal and family life are integral and inseparable part of their religion and for this reason they have been protesting against any move to abrogate or to change the Muslim Personal Law," he claimed.

Rahim Qureshi claimed that Naga and Mizo insurgents gave up arms only when they were assured through an act of Parliament that there would be no 'interference in their personal laws, traditions and customs'.

They were even allowed to follow their own criminal justice system, he claimed.

At the Hyderabad meeting, the board, which was formed in 1972, will also elect a new president. The post fell vacant after the death of eminent religious scholar Maulana Mujahidul Islam Qasmi on April 4.

The board will also elect a 30-member executive.

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