Recently came across a recent case (dated 28th January, 2025) of an ex-Mu$lim woman’s fight in the SC, against exclusion of Muslims from the Indian Succession Act. It shows what a joke Indian ‘secularism’ is, with special privileges to Muslims.
Read on
Safiya PM, a 51-year-old woman from Kerala’s Alappuzha, has started a legal battle that is bound to raise questions. Safiya has moved the Supreme Court with three demands:
1. to obtain a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate,
2. to be governed by the Indian Succession Act; and
3. to declare a section of the Indian Succession Act that excludes Muslims as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court set her plea in motion on 28th January 2025, and has asked the Centre to answer in four weeks.
Safiya, a social activist and the General Secretary of Ex-Muslims of Kerala, is a born Mu$lim, to a non-practising Muslim father. She has asked for a declaration from the Supreme Court that people who do not wish to be governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Sharia) Application Act (1937), must be allowed to be ruled by the secular law of the country, namely, the Indian Succession Act of 1925, both in the case of intestate and testamentary succession.
Safiya has stated that the practices under Sharia law are highly discriminatory towards Muslim women; hence, violates the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution.
The petition filed by Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan notes: ‘Being born to Mu$lim parents, her religion was mentioned as ‘Islam’ and against caste, it was written ‘Muslim’ in her SSLC book. She was a minor while in school and it was not her choice to record her religion as such’.
Safiya wants no religion and no caste as her identity. She does not practise Islam, and her father UA Muhammed is also a non-believer. She cites the example of Madras High Court Advocate, Sneha Partibharaja, who has received such a certificate in Tamil Nadu. Sneha was born to an inter-caste couple and left the caste and religion columns blank during her academic years. She managed to get a no-caste certificate from Tirapattur tahsildar in 2019.
‘If you are born in this country as a Muslim, you have to abide by the Muslim personal law. If you convert, you cannot inherit assets. Even if you leave your religion, there is no provision to have inheritance rights. That is why I want to have a no-caste certificate and to be governed by the Indian Succession Act’, says Safiya.
A divorcee, she has a 25 year old daughter, who works as an animator, and as per Sharia Law, she will be entitled to only 50 per cent of Safiya’s property. ‘I want to give my entire property to my daughter. For that to happen, a declaration from the court is required’, she says.
Safiya takes care of her brother, who is disabled and she asserts, ‘what I ask for is not my remuneration to look after my brother. I need to have the right to bequeath my property as per the Indian Succession Act’. Here, Safiya has another hurdle to cross.
Muslim Personal Law has a provision by which a person can ask for a declaration from the prescribed authority that she be governed by the Sharia, even in the case of wills and legacies. However, there is no similar option for an ex-Muslim, who has left Islam to come out of the ambit of succession law under Sharia.
Safiya says this is violative of her fundamental right to be non-religious. Even if she chooses to be governed by the Indian Succession Act, there is a section in the act which expressly excludes Muslims regarding testamentary succession. ‘How can such an act be called secular if it excludes Muslims’, asks Safiya?
She has also challenged the constitutional validity of exclusionary clauses in the Indian Succession Act. Safiya wants such sections to be declared unconstitutional. The court had earlier sought responses from both the union and the state government regarding her plea, however both the governments did not file responses.
This time, Safiya is hopeful. ‘I am fully aware of the ramifications of my legal battle could cause. My family stands by me in this fight’, Safiya said.
The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 must be totally removed!
Such laws have no place in a democratic-secular nation! Uniform civil code is absolutely necessary in India to remove these institutional biases in favour of Islamism!
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @monidipadey on February 08, 2025, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)
