Amid the ongoing debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) across the country, the Supreme Court has asked the Center whether a person born in a Muslim family can follow secular laws in matters of property or is bound to follow Muslim Personal Law Sharia. The country's top court, the Supreme Court, has sought an answer from the Central Government. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjeev Khanna has given the Center four weeks to file its reply. The Supreme Court will hear the case in the second week of May.

Know what is the whole matter

The petitioner in the case is a woman named Safia P.M. from Alappuzha, Kerala. She says that her family is atheist, but due to the provisions of Sharia, a father cannot give more than 1/3rd of his property to his daughter even if he wants to. There is a possibility that the rest of the property may be taken over by the family of the husband's brothers in the future. Safia, who filed the petition, and her husband are atheists, but being Muslims by birth, Sharia law applies to them. The petitioner's son is helpless due to a disease called Down Syndrome. The daughter takes care of him. In Sharia law, the daughter gets half the property of the son. In such a situation, the father can give 1/3rd of the property to the daughter, and the remaining 2/3rd will have to be given to the son. If the father and brother die in the future, the family of the father's brothers will have a claim on the brother's share of the property.

Safia has said in her petition that she and her husband are not Muslims, so they should be allowed to divide the property as per the guidelines of the Indian Succession Act. Currently, the Indian Succession Act does not apply to Muslims. This has been challenged in Safia's petition.

In the case, the petitioner's argument is that Article 25 of the Constitution gives people the fundamental right to follow their religion. This article also gives the right to be an atheist if one wishes, yet one should not be forced to follow the personal law of a particular religion just because one is born in a family that follows that religion. The lawyer had also said that even if the petitioner and his father say in writing that he is not a Muslim, then according to Shariat, his relatives will still have a claim on his property.

What did the Supreme Court say?

SG Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by CJI Sanjiv Khanna that a woman who does not follow Sharia is the issue. CJI said this will apply to all religions. You have to file a reply, if we pass an order you have to have many forms etc to grant permission. SG said that's right, I will not mention my religion. SG said interestingly she has only one daughter and she wants to give the entire property to the daughter but Sharia law allows only 50%.

What is the provision in Section 3 of the Shariat Act?

In fact, there is a provision in Section 3 of the Shariat Act that a Muslim person declares that he will follow the rules of succession according to the Shariat, but the one who does not do so does not get the benefit of the 'Indian Succession Act', because there is a provision in Section 58 of the Succession Act that it cannot be applied to Muslims.