Shah Bano's Ghost

The film Haq based on the Shah Bano case is detailed and well-intended

- Satish Padmanabhan

W HAT'S the most striking memory of the Shah Bano case of 1985 in public consciousness? Yes, it was the struggle of a frail, aging divorced Muslim lady's fight to get maintenance for her children from her relatively well-off husband. Yes, it was about the highest court of the land deciding in her favour, a landmark decision when it came to the validity of the Muslim Personal Law in a secular framework. The film Haq based on the Shah Bano case is detailed and well-intended till this point.

But the case is even more important in the nation's politics for the dramatic events that took place after the Shah Bano verdict was pronounced. The conservative Muslims, especially the men leading the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), came out protesting the verdict, saying that it undermined the Sharia laws and the identity of the Indian Muslims. Under pressure, the then ruling Congress government of Rajiv Gandhi, which had a monstrous majority in the Parliament, winning 415 seats in the 1984 polls a year before, post Indira Gandhi's assassination, passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which effectively negated the Supreme Court verdict. Under this act, a Muslim woman would get maintenance only for 90 days, the iddat period enshrined in the Sharia laws.