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Synopsis

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday sought the Centre's response to a plea seeking a declaration that a Muslim by birth but a non-believer has the right to seek a declaration from the ‘prescribed authority’ under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, that they may no longer be governed by Sharia law.

Filed by Safiya P.M., the petition further seeks a declaration that a non-believer Muslim will be governed by the provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, in matters of intestate and testamentary succession concerning her lineal descendants.

In view of this, a bench comprising CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan directed the Centre to file its response within four weeks.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, told the bench that the plea raised an interesting question, as the petitioner, a Muslim woman by birth, claims she does not believe in Shariat and considers it a regressive law.

SG Mehta further submitted that the petitioner has only one daughter and wishes to bequeath her entire property to her. However, Shariat law permits only 50% of the bequest.

"....She wants the benefit of the Indian Succession Act, the secular law..," SG Mehta added.

Accordingly, the bench granted time and listed the matter for 5 May 2025.

Background

In October 2024, when the same matter came before the bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, the court was told by ASG Aishwarya Bhati, "Government is looking into UCC, we don' t know if it will come or not..Parliament will take a call..".

"You file a counter as we have already issued notice on this..",  the bench had directed ASG.

In April this year, the Supreme Court of India had issued notice in a plea seeking a declaration that a born but non-believer Muslim, has a choice to seek a declaration from the ‘prescribed authority’ under Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, that they may no longer be governed by the Sharia law.

Safiya, who has challenged the inheritance laws, told the CJI-led bench that, "There is no provision if we do not want to be governed by sharia law. My father is a non-believer and he does not want to follow this..".

"We cannot give declarations on personal laws like this...you can challenge shariat law and we will deal with it. How can we direct that a non-believer be governed by Indian succession act? this cannot be done under Article 32...", the bench had observed.

It has thus been sought that even after leaving Islam and obtaining a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate from the authority, Safiya shall be entitled to inherit her parental property.

Court was told that the petitioner, a born Muslim woman to a non-practising Muslim father, who has not officially left the religion, was facing the peculiar problem in protecting her precious civil rights.

It is Safiya's case for a declaration that she shall not be governed by Muslim Personal Law for any of the matters listed in section 2 or 3 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, but there is no provision either in the Act or in the Rules wherein she can obtain such a certificate. This is a clear vacuum in the statute which can be plugged by judicial interpretation, she has said.

Case Title: Safiya PM vs. Union of India