Muslim women entitled to alimony

Sending out a clear message that the law does not discriminate on the basis of religion, caste or creed, the Supreme Court (SC) held on Friday that a Muslim woman, like women from all other communities, was entitled to alimony under section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Her plea to seek alimony is maintainable even after the completion of iddat, provided she doesn’t remarry, the court ruled.

(Iddat is a period of waiting Islam has imposed on women who have been divorced or whose husbands have died. During this period, a new marriage is not permissible. The period, three months after a divorce and four months and 10 days after the death of a spouse.)

“A Muslim woman would be entitled to maintenance from her divorced husband as long as she doesn’t remarry,” a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and Deepak Verma asserted while allowing the plea of Shah Bano.

Bano was aggrieved by the Madhya Pradesh high court judgment that recorded her estranged husband Imran Khan’s statement that since he had divorced her under the Muslim law — talaq, talaq, talaq — five years ago, she was entitled to limited alimony till ‘iddat’.

Bano married Imran according to Muslim rites in Gwalior in 2001. When she became pregnant, she returned to her parents’ house and gave birth to a child.

Since even after delivery, Imran didn’t take her back, she was “constrained” to file a petition under section 125 CrPC. She said since Imran was earning Rs12,000 a month and she had no source of income, Rs3,000 be paid to her as alimony.

Imran contested saying since he had divorced her in 2004 in accordance with the Muslim law, she couldn’t claim maintenance under CrPC. He said she could seek remedy under the provisions of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, that barred maintenance after ‘iddat’. The family court partially allowed Bano’s plea and asked Imran to pay Rs2,000 a month from 2004. The high court, however, overturned the judgment.