SHARIAsource

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act was passed by India's Parliament in 1986, allegedly to protect the economic rights of Muslim women upon divorce. The Act, however, has been controversial as it essentially overrode the Shah Bano judgment and limited the maintenance Muslim women could receive after divorce to the iddat period (a three month period).

In Danial Latifi, the Indian Supreme Court found that the 1986 Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act requires a Muslim husband to provide maintenance of a reasonable and fair amount needed to maintain his ex-wife for the rest of her life, but that he must pay this amount in total during the iddat period (three month post-divorce period).

In Sarabai, the Bombay High Court upheld "triple talaq" (the pronunciation of talaq, or male-initiated divorce, three times) to be a valid form of irrevocable divorce.

The Indian Supreme Court held that for talaq (unilateral, male-initiated divorce) to be valid, there must be (1) a reasonable cause and (2) proof of an effort of reconciliation; a simple utterance of talaq, or the presentation of a written statement stating that the respondent had divorced the plaintiff sometime previously, was not sufficient to effect unilateral divorce.

The Constitution of India does not refer to Islamic law, and is largely secular. However, Art. 44 does refer to a uniform civil code. 

The Indian Supreme Court here held that polygamy was not an ‘integral’ part of the Muslim religion and could therefore be regulated by the state.

In Narasu Appa Mali in 1952, the Bombay High Court limited its own ability to address the constitutionality of Muslim personal law in India, holding that personal laws are not “laws in force” within the purview of Article 13 of the Constitution, and thus need not satisfy the fundamental rights test.

The Shah Bano case is a landmark and controversial case in India’s Supreme Court which dealt with the question of the length of time a Muslim ex-husband would have to provide his ex-wife with monthly maintenance payments after a divorce, considering Muslim personal law and Indian civil law.