Shah Bano and Shayara Bano, whose legal battles led to landmark court judgments for Muslim women’s rights, found mention in parliament today as the BJP countered the Opposition’s charge against the Waqf Amendment Bill to change rules governing Muslim charitable properties. Defending the Bill, BJP veteran Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government’s decision to bring a law that nullified the Shah Bano judgment, and also accused the UPA government of delaying its response in triple talaq case. The Congress had not recovered electorally since it “bowed down” to conservative sections after the Shah Bano verdict, Mr Prasad remarked.
The Shah Bano Judgment
Indore’s Shah Bano Begum had been divorced by her husband, Mohd Ahmad Khan, in 1978. She approached the court seeking maintenance from her husband after he had divorced her. Her husband argued that as a Muslim, he was only obliged to pay maintenance during the ‘iddat’ period — about three months after divorce — and not after that. The question then became whether Shah Bano, as a Muslim woman, could claim maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, under which a man with sufficient means has to pay maintenance to his wife who cannot maintain herself. In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Shah Bano and said a woman who is unable to maintain herself is entitled to take recourse to Section 125 of the CrPC. The court noted that “there is no conflict between the provisions of section 125 and those of the Muslim Personal Law on the question of the husband’s obligation to provide maintenance for a divorced wife who is unable to maintain herself”.
The Rajiv Gandhi Government’s Response
The Congress had recorded a landslide victory in the 1984 Lok Sabha election held shortly after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, winning 404 seats — the highest ever tally in a general election. Rajiv Gandhi was a year into his Prime Ministerial term when the Shah Bano judgment emerged. A section within the Congress, it is learnt, warned Rajiv Gandhi that the Supreme Court ruling may harm the Congress politically, as Muslims may see it as an encroachment on personal laws.
The government subsequently brought the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, which effectively nullified the Supreme Court verdict. This law shifted the burden of providing maintenance to the family of a divorced woman and said the husband is obliged to pay only during the iddat period — about three months after divorce.
The Congress’s rivals have repeatedly referenced the case to attack the Grand Old Party over what they call “votebank politics”.
The Shayara Bano Case
Shayara Bano and Rizwan Ahmed married in 2002 in Uttar Pradesh. The couple had a son and a daughter. In 2015, Rizwan Ahmed divorced Shayara Bano with talaq-e-biddat or triple talaq — a practice in which the husband can divorce his wife by uttering the word talaq (divorce) thrice. This practice does not require the wife’s consent. Shayara Bano contended that triple talaq violates a woman’s fundamental rights.
In 2017, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court barred the triple talaq practice by a 3-2 majority. The majority view held that the practice was not an essential element of Islam and described it as “manifestly arbitrary in the sense that the marital tie can be broken capriciously and whimsically by a Muslim man without any attempt at reconciliation to save it”. The court ruled that this practice violates the fundamental right to equality before law under Article 14 of the Constitution. It also directed the government to bring a law to regulate divorce among Muslims. In 2019, the Narendra Modi government brought the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, criminalising triple talaq.
Ravi Shankar Prasad’s Attack
Referring to the 1985 Shah Bano judgment, Mr Prasad accused the Congress of votebank politics. “In the Shah Bano case, the Supreme Court ruled that she should get a few hundred rupees. There was an uproar. Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister with a majority of 400 seats. I want to talk about my friend (now Bihar governor) Arif Mohammed Khan, a minister in that government. He had said the Supreme Court’s verdict is good. But then Rajiv Gandhi was rattled and told him a law is being brought to overturn the Supreme Court judgment,” he said.
Moving to the triple talaq case, he alleged that the UPA government did not file replies for two years to keep the matter in limbo. “When our government came in 2014, I was Law Minister. Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) told me to tell the court that the government is against triple talaq,” he said.
Targeting the Congress, Mr Prasad questioned, “How far will the country go for vote bank?”
The BJP veteran said since Rajiv Gandhi won 400 seats in the 1984 election, the Congress has never won a majority on its own. “He bowed down in the Shah Bano case. Since then, the Congress has not won a majority, remember this.”
The Waqf Bill Row
The Waqf Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend the 1995 law governing Waqf properties, aims to improve the management of Waqf properties in India, according to the Centre.
Congress and other Opposition parties have opposed the legislation. They have said that the Joint Parliamentary Committee set up to examine the Bill did not consider Opposition MPs’ suggestions. They have alleged that the government is rushing ahead with the Bill and that is an attempt to target the minorities to gain electorally from polarisation.
The BJP, on the other hand, has accused the Opposition of playing vote bank politics.
