Divorced Muslim women entitled to maintenance from former husband: SC

In a judgement likely to read as interference in the Muslim Personal Law, the Supreme Court of India Wednesday ruled that divorced Muslim women are entitled to maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure

New Delhi: In a judgement likely to read as interference in the Muslim Personal Law, the Supreme Court of India Wednesday ruled that divorced Muslim women are entitled to maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The SC bench, comprising of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Augustine George Masih, also said that the law for seeking maintenance applies to all married women, irrespective of their religion.

The latest SC judgement vis-à-vis maintenance to divorced Muslim women came in response to a petition filed by Mohammad Abdus Samad.

M Abdus Samad, a resident of Telangana, had challenged in the Supreme Court of India lower courts’ order asking him to pay maintenance to his divorced wife.

A family court had ordered M Abdus Samad to pay a monthly amount of INR 20,000 to his divorced wife. He however challenged the order in Telangana High Court. The high court upheld the family court’s verdict but lowered the maintenance amount to INR 10,000.

Dismissing Abdus Samad’s petition the Supreme Court asked him to pay his divorced wife as directed by the Telangana High Court.

"We are hereby dismissing the criminal appeal with the major conclusion that Section 125 would be applicable to all women and not just married women”, the apex court said adding maintenance is not a matter of charity but a fundamental right of married women.

A similar judgement pronounced by the Supreme Court of India in 1985 was overruled by an act of the Parliament. The case is famous as Shah Bano case and the consequent Parliament act overruling the SC Judgement in the Shah Bano Case is Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.

As per this law, a Muslim woman can seek maintenance only during iddat -- 90 days after the divorce.

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