Supreme Court To Examine Whether Muslims Can Opt For Indian Succession Law Instead Of Sharia
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether individuals from the Muslim community can choose to be governed by the Indian succession law regarding ancestral properties without renouncing their faith. At present, Muslims in India are generally governed by Sharia law for matters of inheritance and succession, and the Indian Succession Act excludes the community from its provisions.
A recent petition filed by Naushad K, a resident of Kerala’s Thrissur, has sought to opt out of Sharia law and wanted to be governed by the Indian Succession Act, leaving Islam as his religion.
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On Thursday, April 17, the top court agreed to hear the plea, and a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Khanna issued notices to both Centre and the Kerala government and asked them to file their responses.
The bench has also ordered tagging of the plea with similar pending cases on the issue.
Earlier this year, Safiya P M, a resident of Alappuzha in Kerala, approached the Supreme Court stating that she is a non-believer and hence should be governed by the Indian Succession Act concerning inheritance instead of the Muslim Personal Law (Sharia law).
Safiya had flagged concerns regarding the absence of any provision for the inheritance rights of people who abandoned their religion, noting that they are in a dangerous situation as neither the secular laws nor religious laws would protect them. A consequence of the legal framework within Islam, one who has left Islam would lose all inheritance rights as per Sharia law.
Can Non-Muslim Heirs Inherit Hereditary Property In Islam?
However, non-Muslim heirs can inherit through Wasiyya (discretionary bequests) or voluntary discretionary bequests. The discretionary bequests are considered a personal transaction between the deceased and the beneficiary, which allows the transfer of up to one-third of the property to non-Muslim relatives.
