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Shah Bano, a 62 year old Muslim woman and mother of five from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, was divorced by her husband in 1978. The Muslim personal law (marriage, gifts, inheritance, adoption and a few other civil laws are under the purview of personal laws in India - they are different for Christianity, Islam and Hinduism) allows the husband to do this without his wife's consent: the husband just needs to speak the word Talaaq (pronounced as "talaakh") thrice before witnesses, for a valid divorce.
Shah Bano, because she didn't have any means to support herself and her children, approached the courts for securing maintenance from her husband. When the case reached the Supreme Court, seven years had elapsed. The Supreme Court invoked Article 125, which applies to everybody regardless of caste, creed, or religion. It ruled that Shah Bano be given maintenance (similar to alimony) money.
The orthodox Muslims in India felt threatened at what they perceived was an encroachment of the Muslim Personal Law , and protested loudly at the judgment. They formed an organization known as the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and took out agitations in large numbers.
The Rajiv Gandhi government panicked at the reaction of the Muslims. This is because, the elections were round the corner and the Congress government did not want to loose the Muslim Vote Bank.
Congress (I) which was in power, passed an act in the Parliament, which in effect nullified the Supreme Court's judgment in the Shah Bano case. This act upheld the Muslim Personal Law and writ as excerpted below:
Every application by a divorced woman under section 125… of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, pending before a magistrate on the commencement of this Act shall, notwithstanding anything contained in that code… be disposed of by such magistrate in accordance with the provisions of this Act.The Shah Bano case generated tremendous heat in India. It proved that fundamentalist minorities can exert pressure on government and judicial decisions. The mainstream media disapproved the decision. The opposition BJP reacted strongly against the Congress party's policies which according to BJP reflect " Pseudo-secularism".
In retrospect, the result of Shah Bano case has lead to Muslim women getting a huge one time payment from her husband during the period of iddat instead of small monthly maintenance of a maximum of 500 Rs (around 10 US Dollar per month.) Cases of woman getting lump sum payments for life time maintenance are becoming common.
For a country like India where religion plays an important part in politics, Shah Bano case is not the sole example of appeasement of minorities or of bending the law. The existence of personal laws is in itself an indicator of a constitutional bias towards maintaining religious harmony. They have been legal in India since the British period. The importance of personal laws lies in the fact that India is secular nation with a sizeable concentration of several different religious groups.
But personal laws have been criticized for their orthodox approach and for disadvantages to women due to them. Women rights and religious rights remain at conflict due to the disparities in religious laws.
Critics also point out the fact that while divorce is within the purview of personal laws, maintenance is not, and thus it is discriminatory to exclude Muslim women from a civil law.