Shia Board hails Supreme Court order on allowing divorced Muslim women to seek maintenance

The All India Shia Personal Law Board (AISPLB) today said the Supreme Court verdict in connection with granting of maintenance allowance to Muslim women even after divorce has come as a respite to those who are unable to sustain themselves.

"The Supreme Court verdict has come as a respite to women not able to sustain themselves and are forced to live in poverty after divorce," AISPLB President Maulana Mirza Mohammad Athar told newspersons here.

The Supreme Court in its verdict on April 6 said that divorced Muslim women are entitled to seek maintenance from their ex-husbands under the Criminal Procedure Code which provides the same relief to wives, children and parents.

Referring to the apex court verdict in Shamima Farooqui versus Shahid Khan case, Athar said the Board had made an arrangement for it in its "nikahnama" prepared in 2007.

"The apex court has upheld an earlier verdict of a family court granting maintenance allowance to Muslim women even after the 'iddat' period (three months and 10 days after the divorce)," he said.

"The Board in its meeting in 2007 held in Mumbai presented a nikahnama in which the condition of providing maintenance allowance to women even after the iddat period was added," he said, adding that it had been done to ensure there was no clash between the law of the land and Islamic laws.