Religious heads in cahoots with advocates are running ‘kangaroo courts’ inside many mosques in Tamil Nadu, whimsically granting divorces and settling property disputes without regard to either secular laws of the land or the shariah.
These charges are part of a PIL filed by Abdur Rahman, an MBA-holder from the UK, who claims to have himself become an unwitting victim of one such ‘court’: the ‘Makka Masjid Shariat Council’.
The first bench of chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice R Mahadevan has issued notices to the Tamil Nadu home secretary, director-general of police and city commissioner of police on the matter.
"Because of illegal functioning of the council, the family systems of a number of Muslim families have collapsed and hundreds of spouses suffer the ignominy of separation because of their poverty," the PIL said. The PIL states that because of its name and publicity, many local Muslims had come to believe that the council was being run in accordance with Sharia and all its orders and judgements were legal and religiously binding upon Muslims.
"Muslims facing family disputes are strongly and religiously encouraged to approach it by giving their complaints and on receiving them, the council would send 'summons' and also call the opposite party over phone. Under the name of religious injunction, the parties are forced to appear before it," Rahman said in his petition.
When the case came up for hearing before the Madras High Court, the petitioner’s senior lawyer A. Sirajuddin said the petition had been filed in the public interest to safeguard the interests of a large number of innocent Muslims who were silently suffering because of the functioning of Makka Masjid Shariat Council and other similar fora across the state.
Admitting his own gullibility Rahman said that believing that it was an authentic forum he too had approached the council with a plea to be reunited with his wife. Instead, the council made him sign a letter stating that he was willing for talaq and that council ruled the talaq had taken effect. Aggrieved by this, Rahman has approached the local family court for justice.