Tuesday, February 4, 2014

WHY DISSOLUTION OF MUSLIM MARRIAGES AND A CODED LAW FOR THE SAME FOUND ITS PLACE IN INDIA.

To bring about a positive change in society, the conventional laws must change according to the needs and requirements of the society. Probably lack of this important element in muslim law is one reason why even today a muslim husband, except if he is a minor or of unsound mind, can unilaterally divorce his wife at any time without any reason or just cause or even her consent or knowledge. This caused a lot of violation of rights of muslim wives as they then began to be treated as objects of possession disposed off whenever so desired. This whole situation was an offspring of the Hanafi Code of Muslim Law which is prevalent in India. The code nowhere provides for the right of a muslim wife to dissolve her marriage even if she was being mistreated or was deserted or neglected or maltreatment was brought to her by any other means. The absence of a codified law to outdo such unspeakable misery of muslim women further made matters worse.


Muslim marriages are basically governed by conventional norms rather than a set of legislations While the personal laws of other communities have been codified for better administration of justice in cases of family or matrimonial discord, the better part of muslim law still remains uncodified. In the words of Dr. Tahir Mahmood expressed by him in his paper at a workshop in Copenhagen in 2010 named Interpreting Women’s Access to Divorce in Present Day Islamic Family Laws: Transnational and Cross-Cultural Developments in the Law of Divorce in Europe and the Muslim World., “ …the classical Shariah Law has been subjected to legislative reforms in several muslim countries. Nothing of this sort has thus far happened in India and whatever Legislation has been undertaken hardly goes beyond the traditional understanding of law.” Till date, there are only two statutes relating to muslim family laws in India- Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1989 and Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939.
 The hanafi jurists had however created a backdoor to escape a situation in case the code caused hardships. They allowed the application of “Malliki”, “Shafi” or “Hanbali” law under such hard circumstances. Hence acting on this principle, the Ulemas issued fatwas to the effect that a muslim wife can obtain a decree of divorce under the circumstances where she was treated with cruelty, was deserted, was not maintained, r in cases where her husband was impotent or suffered from insanity, leprosy or any other virulent venereal disease.
A lucid exposition of this principle can be found in the book called “Heelatun Najeza” published by Maulana Ashraf Ali Sahib who has deeply studied the provisions of Malliki Law which may be applicable to muslims of India under special circumstances. This has earned a nod of many Ulemas who have put their seals of approval on the book.
Also the marital status of married muslim woman remained a question if she renounced Islam or converted to some other faith.

Hence, to create uniformity and cure the miserable position of muslim women in India, the act called Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 was brought into force.

Friday, January 24, 2014

A GIRL'S RANDOM THOUGHTS

Sitting on her bed, she kept on thinking...reflecting...
She had dated nearly all kinds of guys. The ones wanting commitment, the ones abhorring them as a pest, the ones still thinking about it, and then finally the ones who have no time for it. She had travelled nearly all dimensions of love and relationships (at least that what she thought).but now...she was back to square one. What she wanted was still a mystery for her. On the career front, she was at the zenith of it, she earned real well. She had a family back at her home town. A really happy and a complete family. She had equally good social life. But then, what was it that was still required? a perk at the work place? a better flat? a new wardrobe? a vacation perhaps?no.none of them. What she needed was time. For herself. Time to analyse what she actually wanted out of life now. After what all she ever wanted was achieved, she needed to set new goals and ambitions in life. To keep moving ahead. She didn’t need a relationship. She needed AIM. a new AIM.
Realizing this...she got up from her bed and sat at her table. she opened her diary...and wrote...THINGS TO DO TOMORROW.

LANDMARK JUDGEMENT BY THE SUPREME COURT SPARKS NEW HOPES FOR BHULLAR.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of fifteen convicts belonging to the gang of infamous sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, to life sentence on account of delay in deciding their mercy pleas. They had filed their mercy pleas back in 2004.
The ruling from the court which read “Inordinate and unreasonable delay attribute to torture. Whether the convict is a terrorist or an ordinary criminal, delay is a ground for commutation of death sentence," has risen new hopes for Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar. The court today accepted that prolonged imprisonment of a convict awaiting execution amounts to cruelty and violates the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Article 72 (i) of the Constitution lays down the powers of the President to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of an offence where the sentence is a sentence of death, where the sentence or punishment is by court martial or where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends. But the powers of the President to decide such matters are limited and ultimately the Home Ministry gets to have the final say. Since no time bar has been put within which such pleas ought to be decided, delay in such cases are a common sight in India.
Fortunately, the judiciary today woke up to the plight of those awaiting pardons, and pronounced today that the prisoner should be executed within 14 days of a clemency appeal being rejected.
It is popularly believed that this landmark judgment could help Bhullar in getting a pardon. His family has claimed that he has become mentally ill. His mercy was rejected long ago in May 2011 by the President. The Supreme Court Bench also rejected his mercy plea last year, after which he filed another petition for review. The judgment is also seen as a first step to undo the harm done by the blatant abuse of human rights that have become a common practice in the name of criminal justice system in India.