Proposal on Sharia Courts

Why in news?

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s (AIMPLB) proposed  to establish sharia courts all over the country.

What are Sharia courts?

• Darul Qaza (sharia courts) are not courts in the strictest sense of the term but counselling or arbitration centres.
• According to SC’s judgement “Sharia courts are not courts” because the Indian legal system does not recognise a parallel judicial system, But the court also refused to deem them unconstitutional.
• They are accessible, useful, informal and voluntary institutions that provide speedy and inexpensive justice to the poor.

What is the need for Sharia courts?

• The decline of the civil justice system is a major phenomenon of our times, and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms are the new normal.
• The plan on establishing rightly been termed as the “economic cleansing of the civil courts”, Governments too favour ADR as it leads to saving public money.
• Thus in 2008, the UK set up five sharia courts whose rulings are enforceable with the full power of the English judicial system.
• ADR is privatisation of justice because parties not only nominate their judges but make their own laws or adopt laws of other countries.

What are the relevance of such courts in India?

• Sharia courts has been establish in the second decade of 20th century in Bihar, and were subsequently established in West Bengal and Orissa.
• Such courts are widely respected for putting in place elaborate procedures for the determination of issues, systematic recording of testimonies and speaking orders.
• As of now about 100 such courts have been functional for decades in India and such courts provide speedy and inexpensive justice to poor women.
• Some of these orders have been quoted with approval by the formal courts.

What is the significance of such sharia courts?

• A majority of women consult these courts to get divorce or to seek the dissolution of their marriages.
• More than 60,000 cases have been amicably resolved by these courts, The cases were disposed of in less than a year’s time.
• These courts never grant triple divorce, They always prefer the Quranic procedure of divorce.
• Their orders are not binding and lack legal sanctity, However It’s perfectly legal if all the parties concerned want to comply with their orders.
• Unlike the Khap panchayats, these courts do not deal with criminal cases and cannot forcibly enforce their orders.
• There has been a steady increase over the decades in the number of cases filed with these sharia courts, Very rarely is a sharia court’s decision challenged in a civil court.

Source: The Indian Express