SC seeks Centre's response to Muslim woman's plea to be governed by Succession Act

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central government to respond to a plea by a Kerala-based non-believing Muslim woman seeking a declaration that in the matters of inheritance, a person who does not want to be governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Sharia Law) must be allowed to be governed by the country's secular law - the Indian Succession Act, 1925.

- PARMOD KUMAR

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar, and Justice K V Viswanathan asked the Central government to file a response on the plea within four weeks and posted the matter for hearing in the first week of May.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central government, told the bench that the petitioner has only one daughter and wants to bequeath the entire property to her daughter, but Shariat law allows only 50 per cent of the bequeath. "She (the petitioner Safiya PM) wants the benefit of the Indian Succession Act, the secular law," the solicitor general said.

Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna said there were issues to be addressed and even referred to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. He pointed to certain restrictions on inheritance even under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, in the event of a Hindu converting to another religion.