SC to examine plea for secular succession law over Shariat for Muslims

The court acknowledged petition filed by Naushad K K, a resident of Thrissur district in Kerala, who expressed his desire to be governed by the succession law rather than Shariat

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine on a contentious topic whether Muslims in India can be treated under the secular Indian succession law to deal with ancestral properties instead of Shariat (Islamic law) while without renouncing their faith on Islam. 

 

PIL to seek succession law to replace Shariat

 

A SC bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar admitted a petition filed by Naushad K K, a resident of Thrissur district in Kerala, who expressed his desire to be governed by the succession law rather than Shariat, without renouncing the faith in Islam.

 

After hearing the petition, the court issued notices to the Centre and Kerala government, seeking their responses to the plea. It also directed that the petition be tagged with other similar cases currently pending on the matter.

 

Earlier PILs to seek succession law

 

In April last year, the top court had agreed to look into a request from Safiya P M, a woman from Alappuzha and the general secretary of the group ‘Ex-Muslims of Kerala’. This group was started in 2022 to support Muslims who have left the religion.

 

Safiya, who no longer follows Islam, wanted to manage her family property under regular inheritance laws, instead of Islamic law (Shariat).

 

She pleaded the court to declare people who don’t want to follow Muslim personal law to be allowed to use the country’s general law for inheritance — the Indian Succession Act, 1925 — whether someone dies without a will or with one.

 

Safiya’s request, made through her lawyer Prashant Padmanabhan, also pointed out that under Shariat law, Muslim women only get one-third of the property.  ALSO READ | Waqf Act in Supreme Court: What are the three key concerns of the bench?

 

Another similar request, filed in 2016 by the ‘Quran Sunnat Society’, is still pending. The court will now hear all three related cases together.

 

What is the Sharia law on property distribution? 

 

Inheritance for Muslims in India is governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. It codifies the Shariat or the law governing Muslims and is made up of Quranic principles, teachings, and the Hadith or practices of Prophet Mohammad.

 

Islamic Sharia law on property distribution, known as Faraid, is a divinely ordained system laid out primarily in Surah An-Nisa of Quran. It allocates fixed shares of inheritance to specific family members such as spouses, children, and parents. One of the key principles is that a male heir receives twice the share of a female heir— like, a son gets double what a daughter receives. 

 

The estate is first used to settle debts and funeral expenses, and then distributed among the rightful heirs. Only up to one-third of the estate may be given via a will (wasiyyah), and that portion cannot go to legal heirs.

 

However, these PIL are primarily aim to differ from the sharia law while demanding the equal property distribution of ancestors among male and female.

 

[With inputs from agencies]