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J&K Muslims now under ambit of laws based on Shariat
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: In a move aimed at mainstreaming personal laws governing Muslims in J&K with those followed by Muslims in the rest of India, the lower House of the state Assembly on Friday passed a Bill seeking to apply provisions of the Shariat to Muslims of the state.The Bill seeks to replace an earlier code that had been in force since Maharaja Prataps era which contained several local traditions. It now erases those provisions, seeking to bring Kashmiri Muslims under the ambit of Shariat-based laws that were penned with the Arab interpretation of how Muslims should run their lives and codes on weddings, divorce and sexuality. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Bill was moved by leader of Opposition and former National Conference minister Abdul Rahim Rather and adopted unanimously. The Bill will now go to the upper House where it is likely to be taken up on February 14. "This bill will create uniformity. The law is applicable in other states and will now be made valid in Jammu & Kashmir. The customary laws, which were applicable, used to create contradictions," Rather told TOI. It erases anomalies with the Shariat on issues like property inheritance for daughters in Kashmiri villages. Under customary laws in the countrys only Muslim-majority state, daughters werent entitled to it, but the new Bill gives them inheritance rights. "The law will change gender equations because it is applicable to inheritance, transfer of property and succession and guardianship. Its not as if the entire Shariat is being introduced, like chopping of hands or such punishment. It does not pertain to criminal matter," Rather clarified. He said J&K High Court had asked the Assembly in 2004 to find a way out of the contradictions in the law and thats what prompted him to bring the Bill. Posted by: john 2007-02-10 |
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